Winners of Innovator/09 Open Innovation Award
Reinforcing innovation partnerships
The Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation
A portfolio of activities helped the Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation (IPI) in winning the Open Innovation Award. Housed within the University of Bradford, the IPI is a flagship research facility dedicated to supporting innovation in drug development and drug delivery. Its research aims to transform molecules and biologicals into quality medicines using advanced computational and experimental techniques.
The accolade has meant a great deal to the organisation, as Director Paul Thorning comments, “In terms of reinforcing what the IPI stands for it’s very important. Open Innovation is a relatively new concept, and to have won this particular award affirms our philosophy of innovation partnerships. Our partnership with Yorkshire Forward is a really important one. We’re engaged in the innovation networks and healthcare technologies and product formulation so to be recipients of a Yorkshire Forward award is part of the ongoing relationship we have with the region. Our formation and incubation was funded by Yorkshire Forward, so their continuing recognition is very important to us. The award is tremendous internally in terms of the moral boost. The financial reward will assist several projects to progress more efficiently. Commercially, to say that you are recipients of an Innovation Award in your literature is very helpful, I’m sure some of our top companies in the region can win it in the future and recognise the benefits internally as well as externally.”
IPI Director, Paul Thorning explains how the organisation operates, “The IPI’s main activity is in drug delivery technologies or pharmaceutics which involves the formulation of newly researched molecules into medicines. The large amount of innovation and technological issues – solubility and scale, for instance – are accessed within the Institute or developed with our partners. We have taken other strengths and married them to our own to create new opportunities. We are proud to be an academic institution, and science is at the core of what we do, but we are also very comfortable in interacting with commercial organisations.”
Innovation is at the heart of the Institute’s activity in bringing together strong science and in-depth market understanding. New technologies are developed and help is offered to organisations to develop their own technologies for pharmaceutical markets. Through its own incubation programme the IPI supports the start-up and growth of high potential companies. As one of only four universities in the UK, the IPI received funding to forge links between Chinese and UK academics and companies to work on new projects that are resourced collaboratively. The IPI now has a parent company in the UK and a wholly-owned subsidiary in China. Research takes place in China and the intellectual property and value principally resides in Yorkshire.
