For the UK to achieve its Net Zero targets there is an urgent need across industrial sectors to replace the reliance on petrochemical based feedstocks with sustainable bio-based feedstock. Croda is a UK based multinational company and global leader in high performance ingredients and technologies that are found in some of the most successful brands in the world across a wide range of markets including Personal, Health and Crop Care. Croda has recently undertaken an Executive Committee level product portfolio review and identified a need to focus innovation activities upon industrial biotechnology as a route to sustainable and biobased ingredients across a broad range of areas. Terpenoids represent one of the largest and most diverse classes of natural products in the world, providing an array of functionalities for different industry sectors ranging from flavour and fragrance to human health and personal care. The Graham laboratory at the University of York is world leading in the discovery and development of different classes of terpenoids from plants and have recently been collaborating with Croda to explore the potential of using these to replace petrochemical derived products in the company's portfolio of ingredients being supplied across a range of industrial sectors. Based on proof of concept work, it is clear there is huge potential. The challenge is that many of these terpene based natural products are not available at commercial scale as they are currently only available in relatively small amounts from the plants that produce them. This project will address this challenge by establishing the biosynthetic route to selected terpenoids that perform in Croda's proprietary platforms and by using a combination of synthetic/engineering biology and industrial biotechnology develop new production platforms that will allow commercial scale-up and development of new biobased products. Croda already have expertise in fermentation based scale-up in so called heterologous host platforms that will complement the gene discovery and laboratory scale engineering of host platforms that will be performed at the University of York. Early leads have already been identified for the Crop Care sector which could have a major impact on the sustainability of agriculture.

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub will bring together academic, industrial an policy stakeholders to focus on sustaianable bioenergy systems. It will adopt an interdisciplinary approach focused on key innovation stages. Research at UK universities will generate new knowledge and insights in sustainable bioenergy, while incubating UK science to deliver its commerical potential and working with researchers to ensure their knowledge is diffused across the innovation community for wider benefit. This will deliver impact with policy makers via our well-established policy connections and a focused policy-makers only forum to address their key concerns. It will deliver impact with industrialists via an industry forum that will connect innovators with UK scientists and engineers who can support them. It will deliver impact with the wider sustainable energy and product community by establishing a professional forum which will support training of commercial professionals and key knowledge transfer in new knowledge areas. Above all it will foster stronger connections between the academic, industrial and policy sectors in a way that supports advancement of sustainable bioenergy in the U.K.

Medicines are complex products. In addition to the drug (a molecule which causes a pharmacological effect in the body), they also contain a number of other ingredients (excipients). These are added for a variety of reasons (e.g. to ensure stability or to target the drug to a particular part of the body). A very careful assessment is required to prepare a potent and safe medicine. New types of drug molecule are being devised rapidly and have the potential to transform patients' lives. However, there is a long time-lag (10 - 15 years) between the discovery of a new drug and its translation into a medicine. Most of this time is taken up by developing a suitable "formulation" (drug + excipients) and then testing this. There are very significant benefits that would be realised from accelerating the process: this was made clear by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the rapid development of vaccines led to millions of lives being saved, and is particularly important as society ages and patients live for prolonged periods of time with multiple conditions. The UK traditionally has been a powerhouse for medicines discovery, and the medical technology and pharmaceutical sector is still a vital part of the economy. However, productivity has recently declined, and compared to peer countries the UK has a lack of high-innovation firms. If medicines development can be accelerated in the UK, there will be huge economic and societal benefits, in addition to profound improvements to the lives of individual patients. To realise this ambition, the UK pharmaceutical sector needs highly-trained, doctoral-level, scientists with the skills required to accelerate research programmes in medicines development. The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Accelerated Medicines Design & Development seeks to meet this user need, by building a cohort of innovators and future leaders. We will do this between two universities and in collaboration with a network of industrial and clinical partners from across the UK pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical technologies sector. Comprehensive science training will enable our students to develop the high-level laboratory and computational skills needed to overcome the major challenges in medicines development. Our alumni will be expert practitioners at integrating lab and digital research, recognised by industry as crucial to accelerate medicines development. Our students will receive extensive transferable skills training, ensuring that they graduate with high-level teamworking, communication, leadership and entrepreneurial skills. We will foster an open and supportive environment in which students can challenge ideas, experiment, and learn from mistakes. Equality, diversity and inclusiveness, sustainability, and responsible innovation will be at the heart of the CDT, and embedded throughout our training. By liaising closely with industry and clinical partners, we will ensure that the research undertaken in the CDT is directly relevant to the most significant current challenges in medicines development. We will further embed interactions with patients to ensure that the products are acceptable to both patients and clinicians. This will allow us to directly contribute to the acceleration of medicines development, and ultimately will deliver major benefits to patients as new products come on to the market. Our graduates will join companies across the pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare fields, where they will innovate and drive forward research programmes to accelerate medicines development for a broad range of diseases. They will ensure that new therapies come to market and the health and well-being of individuals across the world is improved. Others will enter academia, training the next generation. Our alumni will seed a future landscape in which medicines are designed and manufactured in a manner which protects our environment, and in which there is equality of opportunity for all.

Advanced economies are confronted with serious challenges that require us to approach problem solving in a completely different way. As the climate emergency deepens and our global population continues to rise, we must all consider several quite taxing philosophical questions, most pressingly we must address our addiction to economic growth, our expectation for longer, healthier lives and our insatiable need to collect more stuff! Societies demand for performance molecules, ranging from pharmaceuticals to fragrances or adhesives to lubricants, is growing year-on-year and the advent of competition in a globalised marketplace is generally forcing the market price downward, cutting margins and reducing the ability for some industry sectors to innovate. Feedstock to Function (F2F) is an exciting opportunity to forge a new philosophy that could underpin the next phase of sustainable growth for the chemicals manufacturing industry in the UK and further afield. An overarching driving force in the development of F2F was the desire to apply the knowledge and learning of Green and Sustainable Chemistry onto some of the biggest challenges that confront chemicals manufacture, from the smallest-scale, to the delivery of efficient and resilient processes that will future proof supply chains for the foreseeable future. Our CDT in resilient chemistry will deliver a sustainable pipeline of performance molecules, by moving towards circularity and resilience in feedstocks, and efficiency in processing and reaction chemistries . F2F will create an Integrated Approach to Sustainable Chemistry, promoting a culture of resilience in terms of materials and matter via industrially defined priorities: I. Sustainable routes to nitrogen containing molecules, avoiding Haber-Bosch fixed precursors: II. Non-petroleum routes to hydrocarbon feedstocks, particularly synthetic naphtha (C8-C30) III. Circular chemistries to manage the impact of phosphorus and other key inorganic materials; and IV. Enhanced circularity for technical materials including metals, catalysts, solvents and salts. F2F represents a multidisciplinary group of 45 academic advisors spanning 7 academic disciplines and two Universities, working together with a growing family of industrial partners who have expressed a common desire to develop Smarter products using Better chemistry to enable Faster processing and Shorter manufacturing routes. F2F will innovate by: 1 fostering a multidisciplinary, cohort-based approach to problem solving; 2 focus on challenge areas identified by our F2F partners such that sub-groups of our cohort can become immersed in research that impacts on industry; 3 embedding aspects of data-driven decision making in the day-to-day design and execution of high-quality research either on paper or indeed in the lab; 4 nurturing a vibrant and supportive community that allows PhD candidates to think 'outside of the box' in a relatively risk-free way; 5 developing 'next generation' synthesis using chemo- and bio-catalytic methods to drive efficiency, selectivity and productivity, underpinned by predictive in-silico methods and valorisation of big data; 6 streamlining the discovery process by enabling technologies: such as energy resilient photo/electrochemical methods, cleaner solvents and renewable materials 7 developing sustainable processes that deliver efficiency and transition to scale-up from g to Kg, applying state-of-the-art manufacturing including 3-D printing, fermentation, multiphase flow, in-line diagnostics to underpin rapid translation into industry; 8 applying robust reaction/process evaluation metrics such that comparative advantages can be quantified, providing evidence for real process decision making. F2F will train PhD graduates with the vision and skills to drive decarbonisation in the UK Chemicals using industries, securing innovation and future growth for this critical manufacturing sector.

Synthetic Biology is a growing field of science that combines Biosciences, Chemistry, Physics, Information Technology and Engineering, and involves the redesigning end engineering of organisms for functional purposes, for example to produce valuable substances (e.g. medicines) or gain new functions (e.g. sensing and responding to something in the environment). Synthetic Biology aspires to tackle grand challenges surpassing what is possible through traditional technologies: it has wide-ranging applications in healthcare, environmental protection, energy, agriculture, computing, advanced chemicals and materials. Synthetic Biology has grown significantly in the UK over the past decade, thanks to a >£400M investment via the Synthetic Biology for Growth Programme. One of the key investments has been the SynBioCDT: the first UK CDT in Synthetic Biology funded in 2014 by the EPSRC and BBSRC and run by the Universities of Oxford, Bristol and Warwick. The SynBioCDT trained 79 excellent PhD students selected from >650 applicants, and attracted support from industrial, academic and public-facing partners. Our graduate students have gone on to work within the bioeconomy and have established disruptive start-ups. The term "Engineering Biology" has been recently adopted to highlight the essential transition of Synthetic Biology into a mature Engineering discipline. The recent UKRI National Engineering Biology Programme (NEBP) sets the UK ambition for the field and encompasses the capabilities that can support the exploitation of Engineering Biology for economic and public benefit. The Universities of Bristol and Oxford aim to establish a new CDT in Engineering Biology, the EngBioCDT, to train the academic and industrial Engineering Biology leaders of tomorrow, and to equip them with skills needed to contribute toward scalable, robust, and transformative engineering of biomimetic and biological systems. The EngBioCDT builds on our experience with the SynBioCDT and will address the NEBP requirement for a new generation of biological engineers able to translate cutting-edge science into real-world impact; it will support the EPSRC focus area 'Frontiers in Engineering and Technology'. The EngBioCDT will enable cohesive cohorts of students to gain expertise in the design, modelling and engineering of biological components and systems; to understand broad concepts ranging from biomolecular interactions to cell function; and to augment the Engineering Biology approach with robotics, automation and AI. Students will obtain advanced skills in programming and engineering; implement biological design across scales; place research in the context of both basic and applied science; and become cognisant of challenges such as process development and scale-up in biotechnology. Students will undertake both group and individual projects before starting their doctoral project. The EngBioCDT will take advantage of the expertise provided by the two Universities and our industrial partners, which will all be catalysts for inter-University and inter-sector training and research. Students will also have superb opportunities to engage with leading international academics, for example through an annual Summer School, and by participating in international conferences and workshops. The environment is exceptional. Bristol hosted BrisSynBio, one of six UKRI-funded Synthetic Biology Research Centres, and now hosts the Bristol BioDesign Institute and the Bristol Centre for Engineering Biology; the CDT Director is a EPSRC Fellow. Oxford, which led the SynBioCDT, received three fellowships and a programme grant in Engineering Biology, and offers vibrant translational opportunities. The applicants provide expertise in graduate training and many of them have previously worked together effectively. Our pool of >70 supervisors reflects the truly multidisciplinary nature of Engineering Biology, and includes internationally renowned researchers.