UK provides £74 million for life sciences research

The UK has announced over £74 million (€83.9 million) in funding for eight research and innovation projects studying medicine production. These projects aim to make medicine manufacturing more environmentally efficient, the UK government announced on 18/11/2025.

The Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme, which is a joint effort between government and industry funded through the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) Investment Programme, will provide £54 million for the projects. The other £20 million is backed by industry.

The projects include research on how AI and robots could make medicine factories work better, how used fuel from nuclear power could be recycled into cancer radiotherapies and how anaesthetic gas could be reused.

Liz Kendall, the UK's Science and Technology Secretary, said: "The life sciences sector is a core part of our Industrial Strategy for good reason: it turns over £150 billion a year, supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and is a magnet for investment. Its success will be critical to the economic…