BioPrinting Platform (Royce)

Tender description

The University wishes to appoint a Contractor or Contractors to supply a BioPrinting Platform. The Henry Royce Institute is the UK's home of advanced materials research and innovation. The £235m Institute will allow the UK to grow its world-leading research and innovation base in advanced-materials science, which is fundamental to all industrial sectors and the national economy. It is a critical component of the Government's Northern Powerhouse initiative and an attempt to boost economic growth in the North of England and balance the UK economy. Royce operates on a hub-and-spoke model, with the hub based at The University of Manchester (UoM), and spokes at the founding partners; the universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London, as well as Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). The equipment will be part of the Biomedical Systems and Devices theme within the Henry Royce Institute. The Biomedical Systems and Devices intends to accelerate the discovery, manufacture and translation of biomaterials through a platform of state-of-the-art equipment, enhancing the UK position as an international leader in the fields of biomaterials and biomedical systems and devices. This HUB will enable fabrication and evaluation equipment suites to allow the currently missing feedback loop for efficiency and optimisation to translate biomaterials/biomedical devices. The two identified grand challenges of advanced biomaterials research are restoring biological function within minimal invasiveness (e.g. regenerative medicine, novel prosthetics and implants) and developing new therapies that reduce patient risk, improve efficacy, and lower cost (e.g. nanomedicine theranostics and personalised medicine). The Biomedical Systems and Devices will enable the discovery of novel biomaterial and biomedical devices whilst accelerating the translation of such materials via scale up production facilities and efficient and appropriate evaluation and characterization suites.