From RNA therapies to smart semiconductors, CPI transforms the UK’s brightest ideas into market-ready solutions
As a leading independent technology innovation center and a founding member of the UK Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, CPI applies its many years of experience to maximize the potential of every great invention, giving it the best chance of becoming a successfully marketed product or process. The company acts as a catalyst bringing together academia, businesses, government and investors to translate bright ideas and research into viable solutions for the marketplace. To facilitate effective innovation, CPI provides customers with access to the right experts, equipment, networks, funding opportunities, and more. Frank Millar, CEO, delves into the company’s core purpose and operations.
“Established 20 years ago in the Tees Valley, CPI emerged from the invaluable expertise developed by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in identifying, developing, and commercializing new products and processes, largely in the chemical sector. Even after ICI was broken up and sold, its skills and insights were still recognized as highly valuable by various industries as well as local and regional governments. As a result, business plans were written and proposals were made, leading to the creation of CPI. For the past two decades, our core mission has been to assist companies in developing proof of concepts, scaling up, and commercializing new products and processes. We work across various sectors, addressing different industry challenges and collaborating with private enterprises, public bodies, and organizations like ours within the UK’s catapult network. Our reach extends into Europe, where we work alongside academia, industry, and government to identify and exploit market opportunities. However, the conditions necessary to fully realize such market opportunities and successfully commercialize innovations are often not fully met and some intervention is needed,” he begins.
CPI plays a key role in creating the optimal conditions to achieve these objectives, as Frank explains. “This typically involves a combination of intellectual, financial, and technical resources, which we excel at bringing together. We are an organization of scientists, engineers and business professionals all focused on uniting diverse stakeholders, ideas and financial and technical instruments to make something innovative happen. More than that, we ensure that this innovation is not only effective but also sustainable, and that it will have a direct and meaningful economic impact. It is this economic impact that drives us. We combine physical, biological, and digital sciences to address industry-recognized challenges, anticipating the need for transformative solutions. We understand that these changes often require a long-term perspective as it can take years before the effects can be noticed. Therefore, we collaborate to establish the necessary conditions for industry stakeholders to confidently take a step further along their innovation journey.
“A prime example of our approach and one of our best case studies is our partnership with Pragmatic Semiconductor (Pragmatic), a company specializing in novel semiconductor processing and products. Over the past 12 years, we have worked closely with them, demonstrating how the combination of academia, industry, public sector, and private finance interests can lead to significant advancements. I believe that the presence of private finance in this space has become increasingly important in the last few years. Arguably, it will be the most important factor in the UK’s capacity to promote its deep tech capabilities. By attracting private finance into this space, we are fostering a better understanding of the long-term value and relative risks associated with deep tech innovation,” he adds.
Pragmatic’s long-term collaboration with CPI comes as limitations on the costs and physical properties of traditional, silicon-based circuits are stalling the next wave of innovation. To address this challenge, a revolutionary approach to semiconductor fabrication is essential and enables the creation of a smarter future. By manufacturing integrated circuits that are thinner, more robust, and more affordable, technology can be seamlessly integrated into everyday objects, which unlocks significant benefits. As a global leader in ultra-low-cost flexible electronics, Pragmatic leverages its flexible integrated circuit technology, known as FlexIC, to seamlessly integrate intelligence into a wide range of objects, including packaging and fast-moving consumer goods. This advancement helps deliver the Internet of Things (IoT), allowing organizations to collect, process, and output data throughout an object’s lifecycle.
With rapid cycle times that substantially accelerate time to market, Pragmatic’s FlexIC foundry delivers high-volume fabrication at a fraction of the cost of traditional silicon chips and with a significantly lower environmental impact. CPI’s state-of-the-art facilities, technical expertise, and industrial knowledge have played a key role in accelerating and de-risking Pragmatic’s transition from lab-based proof of concept to commercial fabrication. The partnership has provided extensive support in transforming Pragmatic’s manufacturing process into a scalable model and in developing a resilient production methodology.
Beyond Pragmatic, CPI has engaged in many crucial projects. Frank highlights a case study that is particularly important to him. “In the health and life sciences part of our business, we have been working with RNA, a focus that began before covid and was accelerated through the pandemic. As part of that, we established an RNA Centre of Excellence adjacent to our biologics manufacturing facility in Darlington. Recently, we announced a really important program in collaboration with the UK government and other partners, such as Wellcome Leap, as part of their global Biofoundry program. Our Darlington site has been selected as the location for the UK Biofoundry, which greatly enhances the capabilities that we have in that facility. This innovative manufacturing technology program aims to bring continuous manufacturing skills and approaches into the production of RNA therapies.
“The health services and life sciences sectors are eager to explore RNA therapies for a broader range of diseases and conditions, including cancer, dementia, and other chronic diseases that are hard to treat. RNA therapies represent a promising area of medicine, and our ability to produce material for clinical trials in such an agile manner is crucial. As we often work with small patient groups, we only need to produce relatively modest amounts of material for trials. The agility provided by the Biofoundry model and its technology will give the UK a globally significant position in supporting innovative and cutting-edge RNA therapies.”
In June 2025, CPI opened a new Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC) in County Durham, a facility designed to accelerate the development of breakthrough battery materials. “AMBIC represents a very strong collaboration stemming from the previous industrial strategy, not the one the government has just launched, but the prior initiative that created the Faraday Battery Challenge. We partnered effectively with colleagues like the Warwick Manufacturing Group and discovered complementary capabilities in energy storage materials and the development of battery technology. This collaboration facilitates the transition from prototyping to small-scale manufacturing, which linked nicely with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre. Through the Faraday Battery Challenge, we have managed to form a kind of supply chain that encompasses everything from fundamental chemistry to the final product.
“AMBIC is a good example of an intervention, as I mentioned earlier, since it provides a physical capability within the supply chain while recognizing the importance of future chemistries, robotics, and automation. When we make a good case for building specifically targeted and designed infrastructure, we can improve the strength and resilience of that supply chain, thereby increasing the innovation potential it offers to industry. Programs like AMBIC can achieve this by deeply reinforcing the partnerships established among collaborators with existing facilities. These partners have recognized that if we had infrastructure like AMBIC, we could significantly accelerate and deepen our innovation offerings within the supply chain,” Frank elaborates.
In September, CPI announced its intention to form a joint venture with Quotient Sciences (Quotient), a leader in developing and delivering clinical trials. “Our goal is to join up our RNA manufacturing capability with Quotient’s design and delivery of clinical trials so that we can bring these therapies to market safely and with agility. For many years, we have focused on engineering biology, one of the five key technology areas that the government wants the UK to lead. We have applied engineering biology in both industrial and health contexts. In Teesside, we have an advanced industrial biotechnology capability that showcases the power and benefits of engineering biology. We are committed to creating a modern industrial bioeconomy, and this work is ongoing. To that end, we are collaborating with a strong network of partners in the Northeast, including Therascience, York University, BioYorkshire, the North East of England Process Industry Cluster, the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Authorities, our combined authority, and the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The shift toward producing pharmaceutical materials through biomanufacturing represents a significant change in how we manufacture chemicals and materials, moving away from fossil fuels. This presents an exciting opportunity within a modern industrial bioeconomy, which is crucial for global sustainability,” Frank ends.