Programme
To see the full details, including session descriptions and speaker biographies, please click on the session titles below.
UK Manufacturing Perspective
- 10 mins
- Dr Stephen Ward

UK Manufacturing Perspective
- 09:50
- 10 mins
- Dr Stephen Ward
Richard Wilson Impact Award
- 15 mins
- Dr Kit Erlebach

Richard Wilson Impact Award
- 12:00
- 15 mins
- Dr Kit Erlebach
Early Career Researcher Poster flashes
- 60 mins

Early Career Researcher Poster flashes
- 12:15
- 60 mins
MMIP overview - strategy and progress update
- 30 mins
- Andy Evans

MMIP overview - strategy and progress update
- 14:45
- 30 mins
- Andy Evans
Chaired by Nick Gardiner
An overview will be given of the ongoing Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) initiatives, including high level updates from each of the MMIP work streams.

Nick Gardiner
Chief Operating Officer
BIA
Nick is responsible for overseeing the BIA’s operations, ensuring that all activities are professionally delivered to the highest standard. He will be providing an organisation-wide operational perspective to, and support for, activities and projects.
He has specific responsibility for office management/facilities, financial systems/processes and credit control, company secretariat, human resources and IT/telecoms. Nick joined the BIA in October 2014, bringing with him extensive industry and not-for-profit management experience.
Prior to this role he ran the Clinical Laboratory Division of Lab21. This involved providing specialist laboratory services to the healthcare, pharmaceutical and clinical trials markets. He had management responsibility for all operations, income, laboratory and customer services and client liaison across the Group. He also has specific experience of diagnostic testing within the HIV and HCV disease areas. This was gained through building Delphic Diagnostics into a one-stop-shop for clinicians, enabling more effective patient monitoring and subsequent treatment options.
Nick also has extensive management experience within the not-for-profit sector, working for a trade body representing and building the profile of the business communication industry.

Andy Evans
Head of Macclesfield Site, Astra Zeneca and Chair of MMIP
Andy is the Site Manager at Macclesfield which is AstraZeneca’s second biggest manufacturing site and supplies Tablets, Sterile Devices and Parenteral and Tablet packs to around 130 markets globally. Andy is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and has worked for ICI, Zeneca and AstraZeneca since 1987. Andy has worked across Supply Chain Management, Major Capital and IS projects, Engineering and Manufacturing Management during his career and is currently chairman of the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership.
Peter Dunnill Award Presentation and lecture
- 45 mins
- Sharon Grimster

Peter Dunnill Award Presentation and lecture
- 15:15
- 45 mins
- Sharon Grimster
Summary and Close of Day 1
- 10 mins
- Steve Bates

Summary and Close of Day 1
- 16:00
- 10 mins
- Steve Bates

Steve Bates
Chief Executive Officer
BIA
Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.
Workshop 1 – Arthritis
- 75 mins

Workshop 1 – Arthritis
- 10:00
- 75 mins
Chaired by Sharon Grimster

Sharon Grimster
VaxEquity
Sharon Grimster has been an active member of the UK bioprocessing community for more than 30 years, and she feels fortunate that her career spans an amazing period in biopharmaceutical development from working in manufacturing at Celltech in the early days of large scale GMP bioprocessing, up to her current role working with ATMPs at ReNeuron. Sharon was the chair of the BIA MAC from 2003 to 2006, and worked with the BIA to implement the recommendations of the BIGT report which resulted in the formation of BioProcess UK, for which she was the first chair of the steering committee.
Prior to working at ReNeuron, Sharon held senior team roles at Celltech, Antisoma and F-star, and during her career has had responsibility for a range of development functions, including project management, CMC, , medical devices, business operations, regulatory affairs and quality.
Sharon qualified as a coach at the Henley Business School, and she is also a current member of a number of industry steering groups and committees including MMIP, MAC and ATCC industry advisory group.
Workshop 2 –Digital Savvy Workforce
- 74 mins
- Dr Kate Barclay

Workshop 2 –Digital Savvy Workforce
- 10:00
- 74 mins
- Dr Kate Barclay

Dr Kate Barclay
Skills Strategy Consultant
Dr Kate Barclay is an Independent Consultant working across high impact Science and Technology industries with a passion for STEM education. As a Chartered Chemical Engineer and Fellow of the IChemE, she has spent over 20 years in the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry as a Senior Leader in Global R&D leading technical and scientific project teams in clinical manufacture of parenteral, solid dose and inhaled dosage forms as well as developing novel device technologies. Since 2013 Kate has been instrumental in developing apprenticeships across the Science Industry, leading the Life Sciences and Industrial Sciences Trailblazer employer group in development of new apprenticeship standards. She pioneered apprenticeship implementation across the science industry and has won multiple national awards for quality of apprenticeship delivery. Kate has a passion for promoting opportunities for women in STEM, is an experienced vocational workplace assessor for apprenticeships and a Non-Executive Director of the Institute for Apprenticeships, assuring quality governance to apprenticeship and Technical Education reforms across England.
The development of biopharmaceuticals for Arthritis
- 24 mins
- Dr Ursula Ney

The development of biopharmaceuticals for Arthritis
- 10:01
- 24 mins
- Dr Ursula Ney
Autologous Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells for Rheumatoid Arthritis (AuToDeCRA)
- 24 mins
- Professor John Isaacs

Autologous Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells for Rheumatoid Arthritis (AuToDeCRA)
- 10:24
- 24 mins
- Professor John Isaacs
Our team is developing AuToDeCRA as a means to ‘switch off’ rheumatoid arthritis, and potentially applicable to other areas of autoimmunity. We have completed phase 1 and are gearing up for phase 2, where we will compare administration routes. This presentation will also cover, briefly, the Newcastle ‘offer’ in terms of Advanced Therapies development and delivery
Professor John Isaacs
UK & Associate Medical Director (Research)
Newcastle University Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Peptide-based biomaterials for 3D cell culture and bioprinting
- 105 mins

Peptide-based biomaterials for 3D cell culture and bioprinting
- 11:30
- 105 mins
Biogelx supply unique peptide-based biomaterials to researchers around the globe who are interested in 3D cell culture and bioprinting. The core technology of these functional materials was developed at the University of Strathclyde by Prof Rein Ulijn, and Biogelx continue to develop new products and applications around this knowledge base. The company remains in touch with its academic roots by supporting 6 ongoing PhD studentships and acting as a contributing partner in a multicenter H2020-funded project involving academic and industry groups.
Dr Chris Allen
Development Scientist, Biogelx
How technology innovation can potentially improve bioprocesses and achieve some of the objectives of Industry 4.0.
- 105 mins
- Dr Peter R. Levison

How technology innovation can potentially improve bioprocesses and achieve some of the objectives of Industry 4.0.
- 11:30
- 105 mins
- Dr Peter R. Levison
In order to address the challenges faced as we move forward with the adoption of Industry 4.0 we have developed several new technologies and product platforms that supplement the existing toolboxes and are potential enablers for process improvement and optimization in the design of end-to-end processes. These will be illustrated and demonstrate how it should be possible to develop process flows using the technology platforms best optimised for optimal productivity based on kg product produced per year per unit facility footprint.
bioProcessUK 4.0 technology showcase
- 225 mins

bioProcessUK 4.0 technology showcase
- 11:45
- 225 mins
Chaired by Oliver Hardick
6 x 5 min pitches from new enabling technology companies




