Making the most of IRDG membership: APC Ltd

By working closely with IRDG, and joining the many funding related fora, IRDG member APC have excelled at maximising the opportunities to support their near and long term R&D objectives.

APC specialises in integrating innovative process performance across a medicine’s life cycle, from early phase development to manufacturing support. Serving the needs of the global biopharma sector, our primary objective is to design, develop and optimise robust, scalable and transferable processes to ensure an efficient, safe and secure supply of medicines for clients’ patients. With a new state-of-the-art research facility at Cherrywood, the APC team of world-class bio/process engineers, process and analytical chemists, modelling engineers and life scientists deliver excellence across a wide range of process challenges and APC’s own R&D and Innovation roadmap.

At APC, we identify immediate, near-term and longer-term innovation deliverables within our roadmap, ranging from 12 months to 2+ years.

IMMEDIATE TERM:

For immediate term goals and sensitive, proprietary technology, this activity is performed in-house by our own subject matter experts and resourced with internal funds.

NEAR – LONG TERM:

To realise our near-term and longer-term innovation deliverables, APC strategically targets national and EU funding to support these activities. These programmes help to ring-fence innovation activity within the company by bringing in excellent research staff and access to new technology; effectively reducing the risk and cost associated with longer-term RD&I goals – a critical issue for us as an SME.

SCHEMES ACCESSED INCLUDE:

• Large R&D Grant and Innovation Partnership funding with Enterprise Ireland to deliver new platform services
• Direct access to skilled researchers through the Irish Research Council PhD programmes
• Science Foundation Ireland’s Industry Fellowship programme
• Horizon 2020 MSCA and other European research
• In addition, as an industry partner in national technology and research centres, such as the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC) and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology Centre (PMTC) at the University of Limerick, APC can access talent, relevant and applied research programmes and a wider international network of excellence.
• The importance of the R&D Tax Credit also cannot be understated for APC. It has underpinned the development of our new RD&I facility and the recruitment of world-class R&D scientists and engineers in Ireland from both a national and international skills base.
• Our facility infrastructure is relatively mobile, as indeed are a substantial number of our key R&D employees. Leveraging the full scope of State and EU incentives is helping APC anchor core RD&I activity in Ireland, pioneer innovative solutions and increasingly become the partner of choice for the world’s leading pharma and biotech firms.