E-TERM, Engineering Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Continued improvement in the nation's health depends upon the efficient development of affordable replacement human tissue and related therapies; an acute shortage of willing organ donors and the shortcomings of conventional therapies leads to the preventable death of many patients each year. The next healthcare revolution will apply regenerative medicines, creating biological therapies or substitutes for the replacement or restoration of tissue function lost through failure or disease. However, whilst science has revealed the potential, and early products have shown the power of such therapies, there is now a need for the long term supply of people properly trained with the necessary skills to lead the engineering and life science challenges before the predicted benefits in human healthcare can be realised. Realisation of these benefits requires a new generation of translational professional leaders immersed in both the fundamental science of these new products and the clinical, engineering and commercial realities of their creation and application.This proposal brings together for the first time the six University teams, and the associated growing cohorts of young researchers, involved in the two Regenerative Medicine DTCs funded through the EPSRC Life Sciences Interface Programme. Each University group is independently internationally leading in their field, and has attracted significant funding from the EPSRC Life Sciences Interface Programme and elsewhere. The proposed Landscape Award offers the opportunity to combine the research strengths of the six groups to deliver a strategic collaborative programme of cross-disciplinary research, and a cohort of future research leaders in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The proposed research programme is truly cross-disciplinary, requiring expertise that ranges from fundamental cell biology, through biological engineering, biomechanics and tissue engineering, to bioprocessing, regulated manufacturing, and commercialisation.

Undertaking and ensuring impact activities is integral to the vision and operational processes of the academic groups. We are fortunate that the research portfolios at each of the six universities are user-driven, and in many cases industry led - the focus is on a balance between academic excellence and early industrial relevance. Both DTCs, the Loughborough-led EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine, and the Leeds based IKC in Regenerative Therapies and Devices all have established strategies, mechanisms and expert staff for the exploitation of research. The effectiveness of these exploitation strategies is illustrated by the growing number of products and spin-out companies associated with the academic partners. It is our belief and intention that all team members participate in assisting impact. The teams involved in both DTCs have wide experience of managing large and high profile projects and in undertaking impact activities and knowledge transfer at all levels and stakeholder targets. The Landscape Award proposed here has three fundamental deliverables, each of which has highly significant impact across a range of beneficiaries: - a programme of fundamental cross-disciplinary research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) that addresses technological challenges in the translation of promising science to practical therapeutics. Here the impact is geared toward the realisation of regenerative medicine as a viable and wealth-creating industry, the provision of new therapies for use by clinicians, and the promise for patients of new treatments for currently unmet and prevalent chronic conditions. -the identification and nurturing of future research leaders in TERM capable of ensuring the delivery of the potential of RM be this in industry, the public sector, or in academia. -the establishment of a new collaborative research environment between six world leading UK groups based in UK Universities in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Such collaboration will catalyse and accelerate new and ground-breaking advances in both fundamental understanding, and in the translation of that knowledge into everyday healthcare practice. The Landscape Executive Group will regularly review impact made, and the efforts by all associated with the two DTCs to achieve impact. All Fellows projects will have a potential impact analysis and action plan for its execution, and Fellows will receive training as needed to ensure they have the relevant skills. Importantly, as impact activities are an integral part of the working of the two DTCs academic partners, no significant additional financial resource is required.