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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/S02347X/1
Title: 'EPSRC and SFI Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineered Tissues for Discovery, Industry and Medicine
Principal Investigator: Dalby, Professor MJ
Other Investigators:
Wall, Professor I Grover, Professor LM Yin, Professor H
Salmeron-Sanchez, Professor M Berry, Dr CC Gonzalez-Garcia, Dr C
Goldberg Oppenheimer, Professor P Mendes, Professor P Cooper, Professor J
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
ADUMAtech Ltd Animal Free Research UK AstraZeneca
Atelerix Ltd BASF Biogelx Ltd
Biolamina Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit Celentyx
Cell Guidance Systems Ltd Cell Therapy Catapult (replace) Centre for Process Innovation CPI (UK)
Charles River Laboratories Cyprotex Discovery Ltd Cytochroma Limited
Cytonome/ST LLC Dr JD Sinden Entrepreneur Business School Ltd
Find A Better Way Georgia Institute of Technology Imperial College London
InnoScot Health InSphero AG LGC Ltd
Medicines & Healthcare pdts Reg Acy MHRA N8 Research Partnership National University of Ireland Galway
NC3Rs NHS NHS Golden Jubilee
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde NIHR Surgical Recon and Microbio res cen Nissan Chemical Corporation
OxSyBio Ltd QUANTUMDX Group Limited Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
Reneuron Ltd Reprocell Europe Ltd Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Fdn Trust
Scottish National Blood Transfusion Serv Sphere Fluidics Limited SpheriTech Ltd
Strathroslin Sygnature Discovery Limited Terumo Vascutek
The Electrospinning Company The Scar Free Foundation Tianjin M Innovative Traditional Chinese
Department: School of Engineering
Organisation: University of Glasgow
Scheme: Centre for Doctoral Training
Starts: 01 July 2019 Ends: 31 December 2027 Value (£): 7,289,676
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Biomaterials Bionanoscience
Tissue engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
07 Nov 2018 EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training Interview Panel K – November 2018 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
The lifETIME CDT will focus on the development of non-animal technologies (NATs) for use in drug development, toxicology and regenerative medicine.

The industrial life sciences sector accounts for 22% of all business R&D spend and generates £64B turnover within the UK with growth expected at 10% pa over the next decade. Analysis from multiple sources [1,2] have highlighted the limitations imposed on the sector by skills shortages, particularly in the engineering and physical sciences area.

Our success in attracting pay-in partners to invest in training of the skills to deliver next-generation drug development, toxicology and regenerative medicine (advanced therapeutic medicine product, ATMP) solutions in the form of NATs demonstrates UK need in this growth area. The CDT is timely as it is not just the science that needs to be developed, but the whole NAT ecosystem - science, manufacture, regulation, policy and communication. Thus, the CDT model of producing a connected community of skilled field leaders is required to facilitate UK economic growth in the sector.

Our stakeholder partners and industry club have agreed to help us deliver the training needed to achieve our goals. Their willingness, again, demonstrates the need for our graduates in the sector. This CDT's training will address all aspects of priority area 7 - 'Engineering for the Bioeconomy'. Specifically, we will:

(1) Deliver training that is developed in collaboration with and is relevant to industry.

- We align to the needs of the sector by working with our industrial partners from the biomaterials, cell manufacture, contract research organisation and Pharma sectors.

(2) Facilitate multidisciplinary engineering and physical sciences training to enable students to exploit the emerging opportunities.

- We build in multidisciplinarity through our supervisor pool who have backgrounds ranging from bioengineering, cell engineering, on-chip technology, physics, electronic engineering, -omic technologies, life sciences, clinical sciences, regenerative medicine and manufacturing; the cohort community will share this multidisciplinarity. Each student will have a physical science, a biomedical science and a stakeholder supervisor, again reinforcing multidisciplinarity.

(3) Address key challenges associated with medicines manufacturing.

- We will address medicines manufacturing challenges through stakeholder involvement from Pharma and CROs active in drug screening including Astra Zeneca, Charles River Laboratories, Cyprotex, LGC, Nissan Chemical, Reprocell, Sygnature Discovery and Tianjin.

(4) Embed creative approaches to product scale-up and process development.

- We will embed these approaches through close working with partners including the Centre for Process Innovation, the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and industrial partners delivering NATs to the marketplace e.g. Cytochroma, InSphero and OxSyBio.

(5) Ensure students develop an understanding of responsible research and innovation (RRI), data issues, health economics, regulatory issues, and user-engagement strategies.

- To ensure students develop an understanding of RRI, data issues, economics, regulatory issues and user-engagement strategies we have developed our professional skills training with the Entrepreneur Business School to deliver economics and entrepreneurship, use of TERRAIN for RRI, links to NC3Rs, SNBTS and MHRA to help with regulation training and involvement of the stakeholder partners as a whole to help with user-engagement.

The statistics produced by Pharma, UKRI and industry, along with our stakeholder willingness to engage with the CDT provides ample proof of need in the sector for highly skilled graduates. Our training has been tailored to deliver these graduates and build an inclusive, cohesive community with well-developed science, professional and RRI skills.

[1] https://goo.gl/qNMTTD

[2] https://goo.gl/J9u9eQ
Key Findings
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Organisation Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk