The Harwell HealthTec Cluster, launched in 2016, brings together local, regional and national organisations, both public and private, to stimulate a collaborative and multi-disciplinary ethos that serves to build resilience and flexibility to rapidly address emerging challenges; the importance of which has been all too apparent in the COVID-19 crisis.

Led by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) working alongside eight key partners, the Cluster is one of the six Life Sciences Opportunity Zones recently designated by the Office for Life Sciences and is located at the National Science and Innovation Campus at Harwell. Over the past two decades, the Campus has attracted around £3 billion of investment into national facilities and research institutes and is now home to more than 60 organisations and over 1,250 staff working in life sciences, including several that develop and commercialise innovations that span more than one industry sector.

To date the Cluster has been built on the foundations of three core strategic themes, namely Drug Discovery, Ageing and Environmental Impact to human health. These continue to lie at the heart of the Cluster, but have evolved considerably into several specialty fields, attributable primarily to the addition of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) and the Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator (NATA) initiative based at the Research Complex at Harwell.

Marking the Cluster’s 5th anniversary, this online conference will bring together peers from across the health and life sciences sector to discuss how we can continue to build a resilient life sciences infrastructure and supply chain for the UK. It will reflect on lessons learned from the COVID-19 response and how mechanisms such as cluster development and the Life Sciences Opportunity Zones can be used to support joined up approaches which drive greater innovation and investment in the UK to build back better.

Agenda:

13:15 Welcome

• Dr Barbara Ghinelli, Director of Clusters and Harwell Campus Development, STFC

13:20 Opening Address

• Nadhim Zahawi MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business and Industry) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment)

13:35 Keynote Presentation

• Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford

13:50 Launching the Refreshed Strategy for the Harwell HealthTec Cluster

• Dr Adrian Hill, HealthTec Cluster Development Manager, STFC

14:00 Break & Virtual Networking

Time to explore the virtual networking platform and make connections with fellow delegates

14:15 Panel Discussion: Building a resilient life science infrastructure and supply chain for the UK

This panel will touch on the lessons learned from the COVID response, how to support Life Sciences sector growth, and recognising greater potential for investment in the UK using such mechanisms as the Life Sciences Opportunity Zones and cluster developments hosted at Harwell

• Chair: Professor Sir John Bell

• Nadhim Zahawi MP
• Ian Gray, Sanofi UK & Ireland Country Medical Lead, Head of Medical Sanofi Pasteur, and representative for EUROAPI
• Sarah Skerratt, Executive Director, Head of Chemistry, MSD; representing their London Discovery Centre based within the Francis Crick Institute
• Emma Stanton, VP Clinical and head of Oxford Nanopore Diagnostics, representing Oxford Nanopore Technologies
• Anuj Ranjan – Managing Partner and Head of Europe & Asia Pacific – Private Equity, Brookfield Asset Management
• Sir Jon Symonds, CBE, Chairman Of The Board at GSK

Panel for Q&A from the audience

15:25 Closing remarks

15:30 Networking

Connect with world leading research institutes, explore opportunities for partnering next generation technologies and gain access to ~£3b of national infrastructure. This networking session will have a number of themed tables with representatives from local industry and the national research laboratories and institutes based at Harwell.

16:30 Event Closes

If you have any questions please get in touch with Adrian Hill – HealthTec Cluster Development Manager (adrian.hill@stfc.ac.uk)