iformula

Cogent Sector Skills Council: Seminar for Industry – Free to attend

15^th March 2013, The Heath, Runcorn

Formulation Science and Technology is an essential capability which underpins business success in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents, food, agrochemicals, paints, inks and lubricants. However until now there been a lack of coherent provision of skills and training for formulation. As a consequence, employers report that it remains difficult to both find and develop employees with the right skills for scientific, technical and production functions at all levels from vocational to professional. This has an obvious knock-on effect on the ability of those companies to innovate in both products and processes.

The good news is that now something serious is being done about skills provision for formulation. Cogent Sector Skills Council would like to invite you to a free Seminar where you can hear about Gold Standards in Formulation- (tools that your company can use right away – as well as get involved in the plans for a proposed new Industrial Partnership for Formulation Skills and Training. There will be a chance to hear from industrial speakers about why skills and training in formulation are so important to them in as well as to hear about the major new developments to support innovation and R&D in UK industry which will result from the Special Interest Group (SIG) for Formulation, sponsored by the Technology Strategy Board.

To register to attend this free seminar, simply e-mail your full contact details to Ryan Jones at Cogent SSC: E: ryan.jones@cogent-ssc.com or T: 01925 515245.

This seminar is supported by Chemistry Innovation KTN and iFormulate Ltd www.iformulate.biz.

Agenda

9.00 Registration: tea/coffee & networking

9.50 Welcome. Jenny Clucas: Cogent SSC

10.00 Why is Formulation important to industry and what are the opportunities? Paul Stott – AstraZeneca – Director, Formulation Science

10.30   Cogent’s Gold Standard Framework and the new Gold Standards in Formulation. Jenny Clucas:  Cogent SSC

11.00   Professionalising Formulation – Members Opinions and the Role of Professional Bodies. Hilda Coulsey:  IChemE

11.20   Break – tea/coffee

11.35   The proposed Industrial Partnership – How could it work for industry? Jenny Clucas:  Cogent SSC

12. 05  What Could a Formulation Curriculum look like? Jim Bullock: iFormulate Ltd

12.30   Lunch: Networking

13.30   Interactive workshop session:

What are the most pressing needs and challenges of companies?

What are the examples of best practice in industry?

How should an Industrial Partnership function?

Which other elements are important and should be incorporated?

What should be in a formulation curriculum?

14.15   New opportunities for industrial innovation in formulation – the new TSB funded Formulation R&D call and the proposed National Formulation Centre. Darren Ragheb: Chemistry Innovation KTN

14.45   Wrap up & close

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £5m in feasibility projects and collaborative research and development to accelerate the development of new ways of designing, improving and manufacturing complex high-value formulated products in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents, food, agrochemicals, paints, adhesives, lubricants and formulated process chemicals. A further £1m is available for collaborative research and development from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The formulated products market in the UK is worth around £180bn a year. This competition is designed to support innovative developments which overcome the challenges facing the formulated products industry.

This competition has two strands:

Strand 1 makes up to £5m available for collaborative R&D projects. These must be business-led, include an end user formulating company, and last one to three years. Businesses can attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs). Projects will focus mainly on industrial research.

Strand 2 offers up to £1m for feasibility projects. These must be business-led, may be collaborative or led by single companies, and should last six to nine months. Businesses can attract up to 65% public funding for their project costs (75% SMEs).

Projects are expected to have a total value (including grant and private sector contributions) of up to £1m for collaborative R&D and up to £100k for feasibility projects. Projects larger than this are eligible to apply but applicants should first contact competitions@innovateuk.org before submitting their expression of interest.

The official call document is now available from the competition page on the TSB website or from this link.

Applicants may also be interested in via the Formulation Special Interest Group pages on the  _Connect website.

An overview of the TSB Sponsored Special Interest Group can be downloaded here. As well as providing information on the R&D Competition in Formulation, the overview describes the current progress to create a major new UK National Formulation Centre.

(Image: Baitong333 at freedigitalphotos.net)

We were delighted to have a presentation and discussion slot at Nutraformulate 2013, held in Birmingham in March and run by Step Exhibitions. The exhibition was, as usual, busy and full of lively discussions at and around the stands. We found it an excellent show to visit and were able to make a number of excellent new business contacts as well as catch up with some old faces.

We presented on Open Innovation, and in particular our novel Open Innovation (OI) Roadshow format. In  the presentation we provided a case study which demonstrated the benefits which can be realised if a number of companies can be brought together to share their knowledge, experience, ideas and challenges. Formulation is an excellent topic on which to base the OI Roadshow because companies can be drawn from industries which do not compete with each other. So, even without the need for complex secrecy agreements we found that attendees were able to be exceptionally open with each other and this engendered an excellent atmosphere for sharing ideas and challenges. In the first OI Roadshow series the four companies were from the food, pharmaceutical, pesticide and household products industries.

We are now planning for a follow-up series of OI activities along similar lines and any companies who are interested in finding out about taking part are encouraged to get in touch with us, initially by e-mail on info@iformulate.biz.

For further information, have a look at our Nutraformulate presentation.

Jim Bullock, March 2013.

The Natural Colour Summit 2013, held in Amsterdam and run by FI Conferences, brought together delegates from around the world to hear about challenges and opportunities with Natural Colours. With growth in the market driven by consumer and regulatory pressures, the opportunities are clear. Regulations are not straightforward however and we heard from several speakers about the importance of keeping abreast of changes in regulatory systems across the world.

With the increased uptake of Natural Colours, the technical demands on those products are increasing too. Unlike with synthetic colours, it’s not possible to design out poor application properties by designing new molecules, instead new approaches to formulation and stabilisation have to be tried. A number of speakers from amongst the colour suppliers were able to talk about the advances they have made, particularly in stabilisation of these often very sensitive products to changes in temperature, heat and light. We also heard about the challenges of reformulating food and beverage products to replace synthetic colours with natural products.

The presentation from iFormulate concentrated on some interesting and novel approaches to formulation drawn from other industries which might be usefully applied to Natural Colours. There is a big opportunity to transfer technologies from industries such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to the food industry and we expect to see these approaches grow over time.

Please contact us on info@iformulate.biz if you’re interested in any of these approaches.

Jim Bullock, iFormulate 2013

Employers in the chemical-using and process industries have been telling us that it is critically important to make sure that their formulation scientists and technologists have the skills they need to do their job properly.

Formulation skills and understanding are critical to the companies in many sectors who are conducting laboratory R&D, process development as well as pilot and full-scale manufacture of complex formulated products such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents, paints, inks, agrochemicals and processed foods. Additionally the lack of a systematic framework for line-managers to help develop their employees has also been identified as one factor which hinders innovation in formulated product design and manufacture.

To help employers identify and develop the necessary competencies in formulation science and technology Cogent Sector Skills Council has consulted extensively with employers during 2012 and produced three “Gold Standards” for typical job roles relevant to companies engaged in formulation.

The Gold Standard sets the national standard for Continuing Professional Development across key job roles. It operates across four key areas of competency: technical, business improvement, compliance and functional and behavioural. Your employees can begin a journey that will see them work their way towards a world-leading skills set. They can start this at any point on the Gold Standard, depending on development needs.

Before these Gold Standards were finalised, we gave industry a final chance to comment on them and to suggest improvements. To find the draft Gold Standards for Formulation, as well as further information on Cogent’s Gold Standards, just go to the links lower down this page.

Please send any comments or questions you have on the Gold Standards to us at iFormulate Ltd (E-mail address: info@iformulate.biz).

Document Downloads:

GS_Formulation_Scientist_December_2012

GS_Senior_FormulationTechnician_December_2012

GS_Process_Technician_Formulation_December_2012

GoldStandardJourneyFS

Gold_Standard_-_First_Line_Supervisor__Chemicals__Polymers__Final_Report_rev_3__3_

Gold_Standard_-_First_Line_Supervisor__Chemicals__Polymers__Final_Report_Welsh

Jan 22nd 2013

There’s a lot going on in the world of formulation science and technology in the UK, with some major strategic initiatives intended to benefit companies involved in formulation.

Earlier this year, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) ran a competition to fund industrial collaborative R&D and recently announced the winning applications for feasibility studies as well as for major collaborative R&D projects. Large companies as well as SMEs featured amongst the winning entries encompassed topics as diverse as enzyme encapsulation, sustainable cosmetics, metalworking fluids and paediatric medicines.

Also this year, the TSB sponsored Formulation Special Interest Group (SIG) reported on an intense industry consultation of companies’ innovation needs in formulation. The SIG’s main recommendation was to support the establishment of a a national Formulation Centre for collaborative industrial R&D. The SIG is now working with major formulating companies to make the planned Centre a reality, and has decided to build the strategic project programme and decide how the Centre should operate.

In parallel to this, a major Science Industry Partnership for skills development, led by GSK and supported by Cogent has submitted a funding bid for new skills programmes. One of the proposed programmes is a new and innovative industrial Masters qualification in Formulation Science and Technology. If the bid is successful, implementation of the Masters course will begin in early 2014.

At iFormulate, we’ve played a role in supporting these activities and we are continuing to support the planning for the Formulation Centre. Below you’ll find a collection of links which will give you more information about these activities. Contact us at info@iformulate.biz if you’d like to know more or get involved.
Jim Bullock, November 2013.

Final Report of the Formulation Special Interest Group, 2013

Download here: Formulation report 03.09.2013

Technology Strategy Board: 2013 CR&D Funding Competition for Formulated Products

Results of feasibility study funding competition.
Results of collaborative R&D funding competition,
Competition brief: CR&D Formulation 2013

Chemistry Growth Strategy 2013

Strategy document: Chemistry Growth Strategy