Edinburgh Scheme To Tackle Life Science Skill Shortage
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A new £4.5 million scheme has been established in Edinburgh aimed at closing the skills gap in the life sciences sector, to boost the UK’s medical manufacturing capacity.
Based at Heriot-Watt University, the scheme, known as Resilience, is funded by the Office for Life Sciences, which is part of the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, The Scotsman reports.
The two-year project will be run by Innovate UK and will involve the establishment of the UK’s first Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence. Virtual reality will be among the tools used to train students.
Skills will be taught in some key emerging areas of expertise, such as artificial intelligence, digital tech and environmentally responsible practices.
Speaking at the launch, science, research and innovation minister Lord Patrick Vallance said medicine manufacturing is “critical to the economic success, and health, of the nation,” which is why bridging the skills gap is so important.
He added that the Centre of Excellence “will be an important part of those efforts – bringing industry, universities and the NHS together with schools and colleges to ignite the next generation of life sciences talent.”
Co-director of Resilience Professor Ivan Wall highlighted the role of virtual reality in training, stating that it will be “central to the project, helping young people safely learn skills that it would be impractical to gain in the real world due to logistics and capacity”.
The growth of the life sciences sector in the UK could help create large numbers of jobs, making the growth of the skills base all the more important.
Among the locations where new jobs could be created on a large scale is east London, with My London recently reporting on a joint project between the NHS and the Department for Health to establish a new life sciences hub in Whitechapel that could create 4,000 new jobs.
A planning application for the hub was approved by Tower Hamlets Council last month and now just needs to be signed off by London mayor Sadiq Khan to go ahead.