The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.

Regenerative medicine (RM) is a convergence of conventional pharmaceutical sciences, medical devices and surgical intervention employing novel cell and biomaterial based therapies. RM products replace or regenerate damaged or defective tissues such as skin, bone, and even more complex organs, to restore or establish normal function. They can also be used to improve drug testing and disease modelling. RM is an emerging industry with a unique opportunity to contribute to the health and wealth of the UK. It is a high value science-based manufacturing industry whose products will reduce the economic and social impact of an aging population and increasing chronic disease.The clinical and product opportunities for RM have become clear and a broad portfolio of products have now entered the translational pipeline from the science bench to commercialisation and clinical application. The primary current focus for firms introducing these products is first in man studies; however, success at this stage is followed by a requirement for a rapid expansion of delivery capability - the 'one-to-many' translation process. This demands increasing attention to regulatory pathways, product reimbursement and refinement of the business model, a point emphasised by recent regulatory decisions demanding more clarity in the criteria that define product performance, and regulator initiatives to improve control of manufacturing quality. The IMRC will reduce the attrition of businesses at this critical point in product development through an industry facing portfolio of business driven research activities focussed on these translational challenges. The IMRC will consist of a platform activity and two related research themes. The platform activity will incorporate studies designed to influence public policy, regulation and the value system; to explore highly speculative and high value ideas (particularly clinically driven studies); and manufacturing-led feasibility and pilot studies using state of the art production platforms and control. The research themes will focus on areas identified as particular bottlenecks in RM product translation. The first theme will explore the delivery, manufacturing and supply processes i.e. the end to end production of an RM product. Specifically this theme will explore using novel pharmaceutical technology to control the packaged environment of a living RM product during shipping, and the design of a modular solution for manufacturing different cell based therapies to the required quality in a clinical setting. The second research theme will apply quality by design methods to characterise the quality of highly complex RM products incorporating cells and carrier materials. In particular it will consider optical methods for non-invasive process and product quality control and physicochemical methods for process monitoring.The IMRC will be proactively managed under the direction of a Board and Liaison Group consisting of leading industrialists to ensure that the Centre delivers maximum value to the requirements of the business model and assisting the growth of this emerging industry.

The principal aim of the research proposal is to develop effective and biocompatible low cost adsorbents for blood purification. Insight into the relationship between the carbon microstructure on the removal of middle molecules (uraemic toxins) and the influence of the carbon's surface chemistry on the interaction of larger blood proteins (influencing the material's biocompatibility) will result in the development of effective and more economic adsorbents for blood purification. The research seeks to minimize any adverse inflammatory responses upon contact between the carbon adsorbent surface and blood. This will lead not only to new knowledge but also to new and better treatment therapies of direct benefit to patients suffering from renal and liver failure, sepsis and other clinical conditions.