Future vaccine makers to benefit from VR-assisted training centre of excellence

Future medicine and vaccine makers will be able to develop their skills using virtual reality at a new national Centre of Excellence, after a successful funding bid involving UCL. The RESILIENCE Centre of Excellence for UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills will deliver training and outreach materials and programmes that address skills demands in the life sciences sector. It will be run by an academic consortium of UK universities led by the University of Birmingham alongside UCL, Teesside University, and Heriot-Watt University as well as Britest LTD. The Centre will receive £4.5m of funding from Innovate UK and the Office for Life Sciences and will work with healthcare and pharmaceutical organisations to provide an entry point for training and career input, including a pipeline of continuing professional development courses. Director of UCL Manufacturing Futures Lab, Professor Gary Lye (UCL Biochemical Engineering), said: "The companies involved in the discovery and manufacture of new medicines make a major contribution to the UK economy. As a university, it is important that we support this vital sector through new research and through the education of skilled individuals who will enable the sector to grow.   "The RESILIENCE grant enables UCL to make two critical interventions in the medicines manufacturing skills pipeline.