Plant-derived drugs already generate £18 billion in global sales annually, but the UK is not capturing its share of this market. The High Value Chemicals from Plants Network aims to change that by coordinating researchers and companies across the entire chain—from discovering new plant chemicals to scaling up their production. The problem is that promising plant-based products often stall between lab discovery and commercial reality because no single group has the full range of expertise needed. This network will bring together plant scientists, chemical engineers, and industry partners to tackle those bottlenecks. It will run workshops, offer small proof-of-concept grants, and connect academic centres of excellence with companies that need greener feedstocks for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, flavours, and functional foods. If successful, the network could shift parts of the chemical industry away from petroleum refineries and toward renewable plant sources, reducing environmental impact while creating new economic value for the UK. The network is designed to be flexible, responding to industry needs over five years, and aims to position the UK as a global leader in plant-derived chemicals.
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The High Value Chemicals from Plants Network aims to facilitate delivery of one of the four key objectives identified in the 2010 Department of Business Innovation and Skills report on 'Horizon Scanning and Road Mapping for Industrial Biotechnology through to 2025', which is to make the UK a leading producer of high value chemicals in plants. The scale of the economic opportunity associated with the extraction of high value chemicals from plants was summarised in the DBIS report. Plant-derived drugs represent 5.5% of the total pharmaceutical industry with sales revenue of £18 billion, oils and fats derived from oil-crops have a global market size of £500 million - £1 billion and functional foods and nutraceuticals have a global market of £45 billion. Other important applications and market sectors ranging from personal care to flavour and fragrance also rely increasingly on chemicals from plants as there is a growing demand for green, environmentally friendly and sustainable feedstocks across industrial sectors reducing our dependence on products derived from chemical refineries. The Network will provide the leadership to address key technology challenges currently limiting the development of high value chemical based products from plants; covering the entire discovery, development and delivery chain. An Advisory Team drawn from academia and industry will oversee the Network, which already has significant numbers of interested participants covering a wide spectrum of different academic disciplines and industrial interests. The Network will be open to all, to promote the development of a coordinated critical mass of multi-disciplinary expertise; and will facilitate interactions between research providers and users to ensure that research is appropriately targeted to achieving the full potential of industrial biotechnology in the context of high value chemicals from plants. Activities will be directed at identifying novel products and optimising and developing both feedstocks and processes in planta. Additional bio- and chemical-transformation of plant-derived chemicals and the development of alternate microbial- or microalgal based production systems will also be employed where these prove more economical, robust and sustainable. Network activities will include: workshops, industry-hosted open innovation workshops, an annual meeting, training opportunities, Network directory and web-based interactions/ communications. To maximize Network opportunities, we will be proactive in engaging with other networking organizations and international initiatives. The availability of Network proof of concept funds will support timely exploration of challenges and goals identified at Network events. These funds will be uniquely targeted at accessing and developing key technology areas using UK centres of excellence. This strategy will enable the Network to encourage novel technology-based solutions to major industry problems as well as supporting such centres, promoting their use, securing inward investment and further developing the technologies and processes they offer through engagement with the Network. Priority for funds will therefore be for process-led activities and those that have clear potential for further funding or have a route to commercial translation. In addition, the Network will focus on developing challenges ready for future IB funding rounds, such as the 2014 Catalyst fund and Europe's research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. The Network will operate to a five-year plan with sufficient flexibility to maximize the benefits of scientific and technology advances in response to industrial requirements. All activities are designed to contribute to the overall target, which is to become an active community focused on innovative translatable research, achieving high levels of grant funding and inward investment in high value chemicals from plants, so that the positive impact of IB on the UK's economy is realised.
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