Creating early career opportunities for advanced therapy manufacturing and development

The RESILIENCE Skills program, a comprehensive UK-wide initiative, is actively addressing a critical talent deficit in advanced medicines manufacturing, a sector vital to the nation’s healthcare resilience and economic future. Funded by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) and overseen by Innovate UK, RESILIENCE operates through a robust network of academic and industry partners, including University College London (UCL), the University of Birmingham, Teesside University, and Heriot-Watt University. At its core, the program is dedicated to building a scalable, end-to-end talent development network that champions equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring sustainable workforce growth in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Bernice Wright, a teaching lecturer and research scientist at UCL’s Department of Biochemical Engineering, plays a pivotal role in this endeavor. Beyond her teaching responsibilities for the MSc in Manufacture and Commercialisation of Stem Cell and Gene Therapies and her research into extracellular vesicle therapeutics for regenerative medicine, Wright leads STEM outreach for the RESILIENCE Skills training hub. She provides invaluable insights into the program’s multifaceted approach, which encompasses outreach, accelerator initiatives, work placements, and significant international collaborations, all designed to equip individuals with the practical experience and specialized knowledge required for careers in advanced medicines manufacturing.

The Imperative: Addressing the UK’s Skills Gap in Advanced Medicines

The UK’s life sciences sector is a global powerhouse, contributing significantly to the economy and public health. Within this ecosystem, advanced medicines manufacturing, encompassing cell and gene therapies, advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs), and biopharmaceuticals, represents a frontier of medical innovation. These therapies hold immense promise for treating previously intractable diseases, from cancers to genetic disorders. However, their development and production demand highly specialized skills that are currently in short supply. Industry reports consistently highlight a substantial skills gap across the biopharmaceutical manufacturing pipeline, from R&D to commercial-scale production. This gap is exacerbated by the rapid pace of technological change, including the increasing integration of digitization, automation, and artificial intelligence into manufacturing processes.

Without a robust pipeline of skilled professionals, the UK risks ceding its leadership in this critical sector, impacting its capacity for innovation, economic growth, and preparedness for future health crises. The Office for Life Sciences (OLS) and Innovate UK recognized this strategic vulnerability, leading to the inception of the RESILIENCE program. Their vision was to create a coordinated, networked approach that not only trains the current and future workforce but also embeds resilience and sustainability into the talent development framework. This strategic foresight aligns with the broader UK government ambition to position the nation as a global leader in life sciences, requiring a workforce capable of adapting to cutting-edge technologies and complex regulatory environments.

A Holistic Talent Development Network: Program Architecture

The RESILIENCE program distinguishes itself through a holistic and multi-pronged approach to talent development, targeting individuals at various stages of their educational and professional journeys.

Pioneering Digital Training Technologies: At the forefront of RESILIENCE’s pedagogical innovation is its adoption of cutting-edge digital training technologies. This includes immersive virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) approaches, which simulate complex manufacturing environments and processes. These technologies are crucial for developing a workforce that is not only proficient in current methodologies but also capable of adapting to the rapid evolution of technologies driven by digitization and automation. By providing hands-on, risk-free virtual experiences, RESILIENCE ensures that trainees are well-prepared for the demands of modern biomanufacturing facilities.
Early Engagement through STEM Outreach: Recognizing the importance of cultivating interest from a young age, RESILIENCE places significant emphasis on STEM outreach. This involves delivering engaging programs to students across all educational levels through events and activity programs hosted at partner organizations, national STEM festivals, and career fairs throughout the UK. A key component of this outreach includes offering free summer and autumn laboratory placements to late-stage school students. These placements provide invaluable opportunities to work on short-term research projects, thereby acquiring fundamental laboratory skills and gaining practical exposure to the biopharmaceutical industry. The comprehensive STEM activities further extend to GCSE work placements, dedicated STEM career events, empowering "women in biopharma leadership" events, insightful lab tours, festive Christmas lectures, and engaging conference days. To support educational institutions, RESILIENCE provides teaching tools, including a 2-year loan of VR headsets and software licenses, alongside a wealth of educational materials such as lectures, workshops, workbooks, and webinars, accessible through both free standard and paid enhanced affiliate membership models.
Practical Industry-Relevant Courses: For individuals seeking to upskill or transition into the advanced medicines sector, RESILIENCE offers a suite of practical, industry-relevant courses. These typically three-day, hands-on laboratory and case-study-based experiences are designed and delivered by RESILIENCE partners. The technical and professional training provided focuses on critical areas such as bioprocess engineering, the analysis of medicinal products, and data handling. With costs ranging from £950 to £2500, these courses are accessible to anyone seeking core skills essential for the development of conventional and advanced therapeutic medicinal products.
Accelerator Programs for Future Leaders: RESILIENCE features two distinct accelerator programs tailored to different career stages.
- The Leadership Accelerator is a curated, free two-part program specifically designed to identify and nurture the next generation of leaders in the medicines manufacturing industry. It targets late PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and early career researchers in both academia and industry. The first part, "My Future Plan 1," is delivered remotely to groups of up to five participants, focusing on self-assessment, career planning, and skill identification. Following a 3-4 week reflection period, "My Future Plan 2" brings delegates together face-to-face in groups of up to ten. In this segment, participants collaboratively work towards understanding the key career skills required to achieve their ambitious plans, fostering peer learning and networking.
- The Workplace Accelerator Program caters to post-16-year-old school students, undergraduates, apprentices, PhDs, and post-doctoral researchers. This five-day course provides a comprehensive overview of the UK medicines manufacturing ecosystem and the diverse career paths available within the sector. Aligned with the T-level curriculum for enhanced affiliate members, it serves as a foundational version of the main accelerator course, offering an accessible entry point into the industry.

Strategic Partnerships and Industry Linkages

The success of the RESILIENCE program is intrinsically linked to its extensive network of strategic partnerships. Beyond its founding academic institutions, RESILIENCE collaborates with key industry enablers and professional bodies. These include LifeArc and the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, both headquartered in London, which provide crucial insights into cutting-edge research and clinical translation.

A cornerstone of its industry integration is the partnership with the Industry Skills Accelerator (ISA), also funded by the OLS. The ISA acts as a vital conduit, connecting RESILIENCE to leading innovation centers:

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) in London, a world-leading center for innovation in advanced therapies, supports RESILIENCE’s training provision for degree apprenticeships, ensuring that practical skills are directly aligned with industry needs.
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in Middlesbrough, renowned for its expertise in process development and scale-up, supports training specifically focused on the manufacture of nucleic acids, a critical component of many advanced therapies.
COGENT Skills in Warrington, a strategic partner, facilitates deep engagement with the broader industry, ensuring that RESILIENCE’s programs remain relevant and responsive to evolving workforce demands.

These collaborations extend beyond training to active work placements, a vital component for practical skill acquisition. RESILIENCE facilitates formal work placements designed to integrate seamlessly into vocational T-level and BTEC courses, fulfilling their requirements for 45-day and 36-hour per year work placements, respectively. These free placements immerse students in various roles related to biopharmaceutical careers, including that of a research biochemical engineer. UCL, as a RESILIENCE partner, exemplifies this by collaborating with the Canary Wharf Group to organize BTEC work placements with life science companies such as hVivo and AviadoBio. This strategic collaboration is instrumental in connecting underserved schools in East London with burgeoning life science companies, fostering local talent and creating pathways to high-tech careers. Furthermore, The VaxHub, an international research hub for vaccine manufacture based at UCL Biochemical Engineering, serves as an important collaborator for work placements delivered by UCL RESILIENCE, offering exposure to cutting-edge vaccine manufacturing processes.

Recognized Excellence and Future Outlook

The impact and innovative nature of the RESILIENCE program have garnered significant recognition within the scientific and educational communities. Over the past two years, the program’s leadership in training and technology-led education has been celebrated with prestigious accolades. In 2025, RESILIENCE was honored as a winner of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Awards and received the Learning Technologies Gold Award for Best Technologies Project in the Public and Non-profit sector. These awards underscore the program’s effectiveness in leveraging advanced educational tools and its commitment to excellence in skills development for the biopharmaceutical industry.

Looking ahead, RESILIENCE is not confining its ambitions to national borders. The program has initiated a significant international collaboration with the Biomanufacturing Hub Network (BioHubNet) in Toronto, Canada. BioHubNet, funded by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED)/Community-Based Residential Facilities (CBRF) and based at the Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence and Innovation in Infectious Diseases, offers microcredential training, experiential learning through internships, and targeted business development support for early-stage biomanufacturing start-ups. The collaboration between RESILIENCE and BioHubNet, which commenced in August 2025 and is slated to run until July 2027, aims to train national and international workforces in skills pertinent to every aspect of medicines manufacturing, including adapting to technological and infrastructural changes, digitization, and automation.

This pivotal partnership represents a shared commitment to addressing the global scarcity of highly skilled workers in the rapidly evolving pharmaceutical industry. By pooling resources and expertise, RESILIENCE and BioHubNet are actively preparing a workforce capable of responding to future healthcare emergencies and resolving the complex manufacturing challenges posed by the new generation of advanced cell and gene therapies, which are poised to become the modern standard of healthcare. Crucially, these collaborative hubs will also provide vital talent and workforce support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the life sciences, biotech, and biomanufacturing sectors, fostering innovation and economic growth on an international scale. The RESILIENCE program, therefore, stands as a testament to the power of strategic collaboration and innovative education in building a robust, skilled, and resilient workforce for the future of advanced medicines manufacturing.