David Savastano, Editor05.14.14
Some of the most impressive research activities are occurring at leading innovation centers throughout Europe, and The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is in the forefront of these efforts. CPI is conducting an extensive range of projects in numerous fields, including printed electronics and graphene, and has built a state-of-the-art facility to further its research.
CPI has also commercialized some of its projects, including PragmatIC Printing, Polyphotonix and others.
As CPI celebrates its 10th anniversary, the center reflects on some of the advances it has developed, and with an eye on the future, has recently completed its rebranding.
The Beginnings of CPI
CPI was established in 2004 by regional development agency One North East, with one employee – Nigel Perry, who is now CPI’s CEO. Today, CPI has 227 scientists, engineers and support staff, and has built a sizable operation.
“By the end of the year, CPI will have invested over £90m ($150 million) in open access facilities for companies of all sizes to utilize in the development, proof of concept and ultimately the commercialization of their new products and processes,” said Steven Bagshaw, marketing executive at CPI.
“The company has built knowledge and capabilities around a genuine market need, working with over 2,000 companies from big pharma and multinational manufacturing organizations to entrepreneurial start-ups and SMEs, alongside universities and government agencies,” Bagshaw added.
CPI has completed more than 350 public and private projects with a value in excess of £300 million ($500 million), and in doing so, created a business with a turnover of more than £15 million ($25 million).
CPI’s goal is to serve and support process manufacturing industries. It works across a range of technology platforms, each of which has the potential to generate a substantial impact on the future of manufacturing.
“CPI provides product and process development facilities and expertise in industrial biotechnology and biorefining, formulation and flexible manufacturing, printable electronics and biologics, with the overall aim of creating less waste, cleaner, more efficient and more economic products and processes,” Bagshaw said.
In March 2009, CPI launched PETEC, or the Printable Electronics Technology Centre. Its mission is to connect innovators in research with commercial activity using proof of concept devices and pilot scale manufacture.
CPI has also established national centers in industrial biotechnology and anaerobic digestion. Bagshaw added that work is underway on a new £38 million ($64 million) National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, which is due for completion in April 2015.
CPI and Printed Electronics
Printed electronics is an area of expertise for CPI, which has launched two start-ups in the field. PolyPhotonix Ltd., a bio-photonic research company founded in 2008, is developing light therapy treatments for macular eye disease as well as other medical conditions.
Another example is Cambridge University spin out PragmatIC Printing Ltd., which specializes in imprinted logic circuits.
“Their technology enables intelligence and interactivity to be introduced into a wide range of products and applications in forms that would not be possible using traditional silicon chips,” Bagshaw said. “Partners include Hallmark-subsidiary Tigerprint in greeting cards and the world’s largest integrated commercial banknote printer, De La Rue, in security labels.
“CPI have provided a number of key benefits to PragmatIC, such as world-class open access facilities to enable the rapid establishment of a baseline process, as well as supporting ongoing process development,” Bagshaw added. “The environment at CPI enabled PragmatIC to de-risk their process by providing them with access to unique and comprehensible scalable equipment and highly skilled technical support. Building on PragmatIC’s highly successful prototyping activities, the company has now moved its technology to pilot scale production.”
CPI’s latest expansion is its new £14 million ($24 million) Graphene Applications Innovation Centre, which has potential for printed electronics as well as many other industries.
“The new center will build on existing graphene capabilities at CPI and will open in late 2014 to provide facilities and expertise to help companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale up graphene-based products and processes,” Bagshaw said.
CPI is also leading a consortium of major companies to create a UK supply chain to enable the widespread adoption of low cost, near field communication (NFC) devices using printable electronics.
“This project is a £10 million ($17 million) collaborative project involving businesses and the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI),” Bagshaw noted. “The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment. The project brings together the UK’s world-class strength in print, electronics and design in a collaborative consortium to open-up a globally competitive UK supply-chain in printed NFC components.”
Outside of printed electronics, CPI has developed partnerships in a wide range of fields. CPI worked in collaboration with INVISTA on gas-fermentation-based routes to industrial chemicals. The center has also worked with Dyson and the University of Cambridge to explore the use of bioplastics in consumer products. As the building blocks of resins and bioplastics, biopolymers are typically made from plant-based starches and have a wide range of applications such as food packaging, 3D printing and consumer electronics.
The Future of CPI
As CPI celebrates its 10th anniversary, the time seems right to rebrand the center and provide a fresh look.
“As CPI enters its 10th anniversary, we have made the decision to update our brand identity,” Bagshaw said. “We are rebranding as a proactive move to reflect the exciting changes that we have made and are currently undergoing as a company and the major developments in our offering and technology scope.”
With all of its projects in place, and likely more to come, CPI is well prepared to continue to impact the fields that it serves.
“CPI’s history of success reflects our investment in high potential industries and a forward-thinking approach that has helped thousands of companies and bolstered the UK’s offering in an increasingly competitive global economy,” Bagshaw said. “In the case of printed electronics, CPI will be at forefront in the drive of the technology to commercialization.
“As shown in the role CPI has played in the development of PolyPhotonix and PragmatIC Printing, CPI will continue to accelerate new concepts to commercial reality by working in the innovation space between the discovery of an idea and the delivery of a product or service to the commercial market,” Bagshaw added, noting that CPI offers a “safety net” in the scale up of a company’s manufacturing ideas.
“PolyPhotonix have been able to speed up time to market significantly by growing in CPI’s supporting environment,” Bagshaw concluded. “CPI has enabled PolyPhotonix to test, develop and scale up prototypes in an infrastructure that they could have never have afforded as a start-up company. In the commercial world, you can’t stop the production line to trial a new way of working. At CPI, it is possible to do that.”
As CPI celebrates its 10th anniversary, the center reflects on some of the advances it has developed, and with an eye on the future, has recently completed its rebranding.
The Beginnings of CPI
CPI was established in 2004 by regional development agency One North East, with one employee – Nigel Perry, who is now CPI’s CEO. Today, CPI has 227 scientists, engineers and support staff, and has built a sizable operation.
“By the end of the year, CPI will have invested over £90m ($150 million) in open access facilities for companies of all sizes to utilize in the development, proof of concept and ultimately the commercialization of their new products and processes,” said Steven Bagshaw, marketing executive at CPI.
“The company has built knowledge and capabilities around a genuine market need, working with over 2,000 companies from big pharma and multinational manufacturing organizations to entrepreneurial start-ups and SMEs, alongside universities and government agencies,” Bagshaw added.
CPI has completed more than 350 public and private projects with a value in excess of £300 million ($500 million), and in doing so, created a business with a turnover of more than £15 million ($25 million).
CPI’s goal is to serve and support process manufacturing industries. It works across a range of technology platforms, each of which has the potential to generate a substantial impact on the future of manufacturing.
“CPI provides product and process development facilities and expertise in industrial biotechnology and biorefining, formulation and flexible manufacturing, printable electronics and biologics, with the overall aim of creating less waste, cleaner, more efficient and more economic products and processes,” Bagshaw said.
In March 2009, CPI launched PETEC, or the Printable Electronics Technology Centre. Its mission is to connect innovators in research with commercial activity using proof of concept devices and pilot scale manufacture.
CPI has also established national centers in industrial biotechnology and anaerobic digestion. Bagshaw added that work is underway on a new £38 million ($64 million) National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, which is due for completion in April 2015.
CPI and Printed Electronics
Printed electronics is an area of expertise for CPI, which has launched two start-ups in the field. PolyPhotonix Ltd., a bio-photonic research company founded in 2008, is developing light therapy treatments for macular eye disease as well as other medical conditions.
Another example is Cambridge University spin out PragmatIC Printing Ltd., which specializes in imprinted logic circuits.
“Their technology enables intelligence and interactivity to be introduced into a wide range of products and applications in forms that would not be possible using traditional silicon chips,” Bagshaw said. “Partners include Hallmark-subsidiary Tigerprint in greeting cards and the world’s largest integrated commercial banknote printer, De La Rue, in security labels.
“CPI have provided a number of key benefits to PragmatIC, such as world-class open access facilities to enable the rapid establishment of a baseline process, as well as supporting ongoing process development,” Bagshaw added. “The environment at CPI enabled PragmatIC to de-risk their process by providing them with access to unique and comprehensible scalable equipment and highly skilled technical support. Building on PragmatIC’s highly successful prototyping activities, the company has now moved its technology to pilot scale production.”
CPI’s latest expansion is its new £14 million ($24 million) Graphene Applications Innovation Centre, which has potential for printed electronics as well as many other industries.
“The new center will build on existing graphene capabilities at CPI and will open in late 2014 to provide facilities and expertise to help companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale up graphene-based products and processes,” Bagshaw said.
CPI is also leading a consortium of major companies to create a UK supply chain to enable the widespread adoption of low cost, near field communication (NFC) devices using printable electronics.
“This project is a £10 million ($17 million) collaborative project involving businesses and the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI),” Bagshaw noted. “The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment. The project brings together the UK’s world-class strength in print, electronics and design in a collaborative consortium to open-up a globally competitive UK supply-chain in printed NFC components.”
Outside of printed electronics, CPI has developed partnerships in a wide range of fields. CPI worked in collaboration with INVISTA on gas-fermentation-based routes to industrial chemicals. The center has also worked with Dyson and the University of Cambridge to explore the use of bioplastics in consumer products. As the building blocks of resins and bioplastics, biopolymers are typically made from plant-based starches and have a wide range of applications such as food packaging, 3D printing and consumer electronics.
The Future of CPI
As CPI celebrates its 10th anniversary, the time seems right to rebrand the center and provide a fresh look.
“As CPI enters its 10th anniversary, we have made the decision to update our brand identity,” Bagshaw said. “We are rebranding as a proactive move to reflect the exciting changes that we have made and are currently undergoing as a company and the major developments in our offering and technology scope.”
With all of its projects in place, and likely more to come, CPI is well prepared to continue to impact the fields that it serves.
“CPI’s history of success reflects our investment in high potential industries and a forward-thinking approach that has helped thousands of companies and bolstered the UK’s offering in an increasingly competitive global economy,” Bagshaw said. “In the case of printed electronics, CPI will be at forefront in the drive of the technology to commercialization.
“As shown in the role CPI has played in the development of PolyPhotonix and PragmatIC Printing, CPI will continue to accelerate new concepts to commercial reality by working in the innovation space between the discovery of an idea and the delivery of a product or service to the commercial market,” Bagshaw added, noting that CPI offers a “safety net” in the scale up of a company’s manufacturing ideas.
“PolyPhotonix have been able to speed up time to market significantly by growing in CPI’s supporting environment,” Bagshaw concluded. “CPI has enabled PolyPhotonix to test, develop and scale up prototypes in an infrastructure that they could have never have afforded as a start-up company. In the commercial world, you can’t stop the production line to trial a new way of working. At CPI, it is possible to do that.”