The latest Business updates from the science industry
Liverpool City Region Offers Recovery Support for Local SME’s by Heather Hobbs
A £3 million Liverpool City Region (LCR) Future Innovation Fund is to provide grants for SME’s that have reacted innovatively to the changed business environment created by COVID-19.
Launched by Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the LCR and delivered through Growth Platform, the new fund is part of a wider response by the Metro Mayor and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, to re-purpose and re-shape the funding available for businesses.
Accessed via the Strategic Investment Fund which opened up on 12 June, grants of between £25,000 and £100,000 have been offered. Subsequent releases of the fund will be shaped by learning from the initial scheme.
Steve Rotheram said: “Businesses in Liverpool City Region have shown an unbelievable ability to adapt and innovate their current business models to successfully weather these extremely challenging times. The overriding priority for us all has to be the safety of the people who live and work in the city region. We need to
ensure those businesses are supported so that they can help drive our ambitions for inclusive growth in the city region beyond the far- reaching impact of COVID-19.
“Our economy will need major fi nancial support from central government to recover, but we have to do what we can to support businesses in the here and now.” He added: “This is a limited fund, but I am sure that it will make a huge difference to businesses who have shown innovation, ingenuity and agility in their responses to this terrible economic shock.”
The grants will be awarded to businesses that can demonstrate alignment to the Local Industrial Strategy priority areas including manufacturing and engineering, open health innovation, zero carbon economy, global cultural capital, tech for good and digitalisation.
Eligible companies must be a registered SME, operational before 1 January, 2020, with headquarters or signifi cant operations in the Liverpool City Region.
More information at
www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk Steve Rotheram
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Government Boosts Investment into VMIC
The UK’s fi rst strategic centre for vaccine development and manufacturing has been awarded up to £131 million by the government, to scale-up infrastructure and capacity to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine. The Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) situated on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, is aiming to produce 70 million vaccine doses in four-six months from opening – a 20-fold increase from current fi gures. Furthermore, the facility’s building schedule will be accelerated to allow it to come online in summer 2021 – a year ahead of schedule.
A ‘virtual VMIC’ will be created, procuring manufacturing equipment, recruiting highly-specialist people and securing physical space to create a temporary manufacturing centre ready to make vaccines at pace and scale once a viable COVID-19 vaccine has been found.
Welcoming the move, Dr Barbara Ghinelli, Director of Harwell Clusters and Business Development at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), said: “Investing in the acceleration and expansion of VMIC is wise both in the medium- and long-term.
Opening the facility a year ahead of schedule will strengthen the UK’s efforts to tackle COVID-19 and give us resilience for future pandemics.
“In the long-term, with increased R&D and manufacturing capability, the Centre will act as a catalyst to strengthen the UK vaccines value chain – creating new fi elds of expertise and driving forward innovation to the benefi t of the global science community.”
VMIC was established by the University of Oxford, Imperial College and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with support from industrial partners, Merck Sharpe and Dohme, Johnson and Johnson, and GE Healthcare. The new funding comes through UK Research and Innovation, as part of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and is in addition to an original £65 million grant, with a further £10 million provided by industry partners and other businesses.
VMIC: artists impression
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Cell Analysis Systems win Queen’s Award for Enterprise
Sphere Fluidics has been presented with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its single cell analysis systems which are underpinned by its patented picodroplet technology. These systems provide rapid screening and characterisation of cells to advance research and accelerate biopharmaceutical discovery and development. The Company, which was spun out from the University of Cambridge in 2010 and employs 31 people, developed the multi-award winning, Cyto-Mine® System, which integrates isolation, selective screening, sorting and imaging into a single automated platform.
Dr. Frank F. Craig, CEO, Sphere Fluidics, said: “We are immensely proud to have our pioneering approach to single cell analysis recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. This is a testament to the hard work and expertise of our dedicated team who have a deep understanding of the challenges faced by researchers in drug discovery, therapeutics and diagnostics.
“Sphere Fluidics’ technology is specifi cally designed to increase the chances of fi nding that rare molecule or cell that could lead to a life changing medicine. Our systems help make the development of new biopharmaceuticals faster and more cost-effective, improve monoclonal antibody screening, cell line development, and overall effi ciency to help accelerate research into new therapeutic modalities. Our technology is highly innovative and is covered by 148 international patents and 18 trademarks.”
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