The UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) opened its state-of-the-art National Formulation Centre last week, at a launch event featuring leading industrial specialists in the field of formulation science. In attendance were representatives from global companies including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKleine (GSK), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilever, Croda, BASF and BP.
Established to support the UK process manufacturing industry, CPI collaborates with universities, SMEs and large corporations to help overcome innovation challenges. Operating across a broad range of technologies, partners are supported from concept to market; business support to technology development; and from scale up to supply chain intervention.
Emma McLeod, Research Principal at Mondelez International, said: “The food and drink sector is the largest remaining manufacturing sector in the UK – it is bigger than the aerospace and automotive industries combined, and contributes over £28.8bn a year to the UK economy. As 97 per cent of companies in the sector are SMEs, the biggest challenge is getting the scale of formulations we need. CPI’s National Formulation Centre is integral to enabling the cross-sector collaboration and access to facilities required help get future food and drink formulations to scale.”
The centre is home to world-class laboratories and accompanying expertise, focusing on measurement, high-throughput formulation, process chemistry, process technology, complex particles, nanomaterials, composites, and chemistry and dispersions. based at NETPark in County Durham, it  is funded by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership as part of the North East Growth Deal from the UK Government and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.