CMAC Open Days 2023
In November 2023, CMAC welcomed 288 delegates from 68 companies to the highly anticipated CMAC Open Days 2023, offering a platform for networking, dissemination and collaborative learning and exploration.
The three-day event provided delegates with the opportunity to learn from top academics, industrialists, and researchers about the emerging challenges facing industry and the latest advancements in CMAC's major research programmes and translation portfolio.
Alastair Florence, CMAC Director, said: “The Open Days are truly about bringing the community together. We operate in a pre-competitive collaborative space, showcasing our research but also welcome others to showcase their research as our aim is to inspire one another around our shared mission of advancing medicine manufacturing research to benefit patients.”
The event included presentations from 47 speakers, engaging panel sessions around skills needs and the workforce of the future, as well as CMAC Hub and DM² Demonstrator showcases, poster sessions, CMAC lab tours, and valuable networking opportunities. Read more about these activities below.
Presentations:
Over the course of three days, we had the pleasure of hosting speakers such as Ivan Marziano, Industry Board Chair and Research Fellow at Pfizer, Dr. Andy Maloney from CCDC and Dr. Stephen Ward from Gene Therapy Catapult. We also saw presentations from Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal of the University of Strathclyde; Alastair Florence, CMAC Director; and Massimo Bresciani, CMAC Industry Director, who provided perspectives on new developments for CMAC. In particular, Prof Florence, announced the new £33M UK RPIF Round 7 award to establish the CMAC Data Lab Medicines Manufacturing Research Accelerator.
The themed sessions provided updates on key areas of the Centre’s portfolio and covered: 'Quality by Digital Design and Digital Workflows', 'Data Factories and Model-Driven Experiments', 'Micro Factories and Advanced Process Technology', 'Data and Digital Twins', 'Translation to Industry', and 'Lab and Workforce of the Future'.
The 'Lab and Workforce of the Future' session featured a panel session with Prof Richard Bourne of the University of Leeds, Prof Paul Chapman of The Glasgow School of Art, Dr Daniel Markl of CMAC, Prof Linda Newnes of the University of Bath, Dr Amy Robertson of AstraZeneca, and Dr Catriona Clark of CMAC reviewing the challenges and opportunities of training the next generation of research leaders to use and innovate new sustainable, digital technologies. Additionally, the 'Translation to Industry' session featured John Mack from Applied Materials, Jyoti Yadav from Technobis Crystallisation Systems, and Sean Bermingham from Siemens, where they highlighted successful approaches to accelerate impact from research and novel technologies.
CMAC Future Manufacturing Research Hub Showcases:
The Showcase sessions consisted of two 90-minute sessions where delegates engaged directly with CMAC researchers to learn more about their research. Each session involved a ‘speed dating’ segment where researchers presented their work to small groups of attendees in the first half of the showcase, followed by in-depth discussions in the second half.
There was a great buzz during the 'speed dating' sessions, resulting in in-depth discussions with the researchers that embody our co-delivery philosophy: to deliver user-inspired research solutions through direct participation. The feedback from the showcase sessions has been overwhelmingly positive and we will use this format again in future events.
DM² Demonstrator:
The Made Smarter Innovation – Digital Medicines Manufacturing Research Centre (DM²), led by CMAC, delivered a showcase of industrial digital technologies that the collaborative team has developed in the first half of the project. A team of 26 academics, researchers, and project management staff created an immersive and interactive experience for the Open Days delegates. This experience showcased tools for data acquisition and transformation, autonomous drug product manufacturing, design of quality control mechanisms, digital supply chain interventions, and skills development programmes with the aid of immersive augmented reality platforms.
The museum-inspired 'journey of discovery' began with an informative walkthrough, featuring videos and wall-mounted artworks that offered delegates a comprehensive overview of the project and its outputs. This was followed by interactive, hands-on demonstrations led by DM² researchers, allowing delegates to engage with the team and see the new technologies. The feedback has been hugely positive, with delegates enjoying the self-led and immersive nature of the experience, including commendation from the Made Smarter Innovation Challenge Deputy Director on the enthusiasm of the researchers and innovative and engaging approach.
CMAC Lab Tours:
The CMAC lab tours provided an excellent opportunity to showcase a selection of over 100 technologies within the CMAC portfolio, focusing specifically on progress since the last Open Days event in 2022 from projects across our portfolio. The tour consisted of 6 stations and accommodated approximately 100 delegates over the course of 2 days.
Station 1: Automated Crystallisation Platform
Station 2: MSMPR Integrated with PharmaMV Monitoring and Control
Station 3: Laminar LCTR Taylor Couette Platform
Station 4: Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) with SIFT-MS
Station 5: Crystallisation DataFactory
Station 6: High-Pressure XRPD
Poster Sessions:
A crucial aspect of the Open Days is the opportunity for CMAC researchers to share with their peers, external stakeholders and industry partners details of their research through Poster Sessions. This saw a total of 63 posters across the themes of Quality by Digital Design & Digital Workflows, DataFactories & Model-driven Experiments, Data and Digital Twin, and MicroFactories & Advanced Process Technology.
Prize Giving:
CMAC were delighted to award poster prizes to Eleanor Jones, Amal Osman, Daniel Powell, Theo Tait and Isra Ibrahim for best posters in each theme area. The winners for the best poster award voted for by attendees were Theo Tait and Mohammad Salehian. The CMAC Team would like to thank the sponsors of the poster prizes: CCDC, CLAIRET SCIENTIFIC LIMITED, Element Syft Technologies, Malvern Panalytical, Korsch/ Medelpharm, METERology and M-Star.
Additionally, we were thrilled to recognise two members of our Management and Support team with Excellence Awards. Congratulations to Morell Kerr and Aruna Prakash.
Our CMAC Open Days have received very positive feedback in person and on social media from attendees. Kevin Girard, Research Fellow at Pfizer, said: “I think the CMAC Open Days has really become the premier event in the UK for bringing people together and seeing the transformational technology that’s here.”
Additionally, Paul Sharratt, Chair of the Hub Advisory Board and Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology, commented: “The Open Days really bring the whole thing to life. You can read academic papers, you can look at the videos, but I think really talking to the people and understanding what a major contribution is being made really adds significant value”. These testimonials reflect the event's impact in fostering connections and showcasing the innovative research and potential impacts within industry.
CMAC would like to thank all attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors whose contributions made the CMAC Open Days 2023 a success. Recordings of the event will be available on social media and our website for anyone who was unable to attend. We look forward to welcoming you all to more CMAC events in the future.
