Industry leaders gathered at Discovery Park on 14 October for The Lab of the Future & Green Chemistry Innovation, an event exploring pharmaceutical AI, automation and green chemistry, with speakers urging the industry to unite to share learnings and knowledge. 

The half-day event drew 140 delegates from pharma, biotech, research and manufacturing for keynotes, panel discussions and a fireside chat.

Abbie Kempe, Director of Research, Enterprise & Innovation Services at Canterbury Christ Church University, chaired the event. Discovery Park’s CEO, Mayer Schreiber, opened the day by tracing AI’s disruptive journey from his first ChatGPT encounter in 2022 to the powerful agentic lab ecosystems transforming automation today.

In his keynote, Steve Fussell, Senior Manager – High-Throughput Experimentation Lead in Chemical Research & Development at Asymchem, explained how high-throughput experimentation and automation can reshape pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing. He noted: “By unlocking efficiency with robotic systems, we are making transformation improvements in speed, precision and time utilisation. This is freeing up our brilliant scientists to focus on transforming data into knowledge.” 

Left: Mark Fish. Right: Steve Fussell.

Mark Fish, Vice President and General Manager – Digital Science and Automation Solutions at Thermo Fisher Scientific, discussed the acceleration of autonomous labs. He said: “All the tech in the world won’t make your lab faster unless you take your scientists on the journey with you. We need to equip scientists with training, allow for experimentation, and encourage them to get practical, using tools to solve hands-on problems. We need a hybrid workforce with skills in both science and AI technology, and importantly we need to give this workforce time to learn.”

Insights were also shared from Thomas Balkizas, Senior Director, R&D Industry Advisory for Healthcare and Life Sciences at Microsoft, on agentic laboratories, with AI able to reason with scientific data, not just retrieve it. He advised SMEs to start with a single use case built around a real research bottleneck – such as literature review or candidate screening – and pilot an agentic workflow with proper governance, then apply what they learn across the organisation.

A panel on the digital lab in action brought together speakers from AstraZeneca, Thermo Fisher Scientific, the Pistoia Alliance and Canterbury Christ Church University. A second panel, with experts from Asymchem, CatSci, Growing Kent and Medway and Canterbury Christ Church University, made the case for continuous improvement and collaboration in sustainable innovation. 

Above, left to right: Shashi Pandya, Caterina Minelli, John Murphy.

John Murphy of Particology chaired a fireside chat on sustainability and commercialisation with Caterina Minelli of NPL and Shashi Pandya of Pale Blue Dot and Spinnovate UK. He shared lessons from Particology’s Innovate UK-funded “Grand Challenge” research project, developing and demonstrating new technologies for greener, more efficient medicines manufacturing.

The day closed with an IP Clinic hosted by Venner Shipley, helping attendees protect and commercialise their innovations. The event was organised by Discovery Park and sponsored by Asymchem, the IChemE Pharma Group, Particology and Venner Shipley. 

Exhibitors included Canterbury Christ Church University, Emerson Process Management, Haier Biomedical, Jaytee Biosciences, LAUDA Technology, Novogene, Omicron Research, R&L Slaughter, Sartorius UK, Thermo Electron Manufacturing and Venner Shipley.

Above: Cecilia Macleod, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Anthera Remediation Technologies

Discovery Park, Kent’s business park for science and technology companies, today welcomed two climate-tech companies to its innovation campus. Anthera Remediation Technologies, tackling ‘forever chemicals’ in water and soil, and Colliding Materials, building plastic compounding technology for sustainable energy systems, have now moved into new laboratory spaces in Sandwich, Kent.

 

Anthera Remediation Technologies (A.R.T) is focused on the removal and breakdown of PFAS from the environment. These ‘forever chemicals’ are used in many household products, from non-stick cookware to waterproof clothing. A.R.T’s remediation platform uses a modular process of contaminant recovery, photocatalytic destruction, and bioremediation to remove PFAS from soil and water. A.R.T’s technology does not require high heat or pressure, making it practical and sustainable, with lower operating costs compared to conventional approaches. 

 

Founded in 2025, A.R.T has grown to a team of four, splitting time between Discovery Park’s Barclays Eagle Lab for collaborative office space and a shared lab for prototype testing. They are working with a client to run a PFAS removal pilot at a landfill site, with early results demonstrating the effectiveness of their approach. A.R.T is raising £300k for optimisation of their system, as part of a £1.55m funding round to reach commercialisation. The team has future ambitions to scale up their remediation system and add analytical wastewater capabilities on site at Discovery Park. 

 

Above: Shiyao Li, Chief Technology Officer, and Edwin Harvey, Founder and CEO of Colliding Materials 

Colliding Materials has developed engineered composite materials for use in electronics, sustainable energy and aerospace. Their technology blends graphite and functional fillers with polymer binders, achieving over seven times higher electrical conductivity compared to other materials. These specialist performance materials can be manufactured and moulded to meet clients’ requirements, providing better performance for customers building next-generation batteries and energy systems. 

Colliding Materials is already working with a London-based startup, providing bespoke materials for a specialised system that transforms brewing byproducts into useful green hydrogen and CO₂. They recently received a £50k grant from Innovate UK and have just opened their pre-seed fundraising round, aiming to secure £750k for scale-up and commercialisation. Originally based in London since founding in 2025, Colliding Materials relocated to Discovery Park seeking cost-effective lab space, with their CEO now living in Ramsgate. The team of five has a private lab space at Discovery Park, along with benefiting from business support at the onsite Barclays Eagle Lab. 

A.R.T and Colliding Materials are alumni of Discovery Park’s business growth programme for startups and SMEs, Discovery Spark. Both cite the programme as valuable to their company growth, with A.R.T finding the programme’s training in legal, contracts and insurance valuable to their scientific team, and Colliding Materials citing the programme’s intellectual property guidance as key to their recent patent filing. The Spark programme is currently accepting applications for its next cohort.

 

Cecilia Macleod, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Anthera Remediation Technologies, commented: “Joining Discovery Park has accelerated our growth opportunities. Surrounded by businesses from different industries, we’ve built an unexpected peer network – it genuinely feels like we have a large group of colleagues here. The specialist lab facilities and links with local academia have been invaluable, and the Discovery Spark programme has opened doors to investment and accelerator opportunities we wouldn’t have found otherwise. We’re encouraged by the results from our pilot work, and we’re excited to scale to the next stage.” 

 

Edwin Harvey, Founder and CEO of Colliding Materials, said: “The space and facilities at Discovery Park led to our relocation from the capital, providing cost-effective private labs suited to a scaling startup. The community impressed us immediately, including an onsite network of green innovation businesses. We’ve already recruited from the talent pool based at Discovery Park, and are focused on securing investment to support the next stage of our journey.” 

 

Chris Broom, Head of Business Development at Discovery Park, added: “Anthera Remediation Technologies and Colliding Materials represent innovative and scaling SMEs that can succeed within Discovery Park’s community. A.R.T’s practical and sustainable approach to tackling ‘forever chemicals’ has real potential to support environmental remediation, and the materials developed by Colliding Materials can unlock advances across many industries, from fuel cell technology to high-value electronics. Their presence strengthens a rapidly growing green innovation cluster at Discovery Park.” 

Discovery Park’s growing climate-tech cluster already includes ZeroAvia, building an aerospace-grade hydrogen-electric propulsion system, and Clean Planet Technologies, who recently opened the world’s first waste plastics to sustainable aviation fuel pilot facility. There are also agri-tech companies supporting more sustainable farming, including Verdant Carbon, offering high-quality soil carbon measurements, and Elaniti, who use generative genomic AI to decode soil function. 

These two latest additions bring Discovery Park’s tenant community to over 180 companies, spanning biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing. The park provides state-of-the-art laboratory and office facilities, along with amenities focused on work/life balance, including gyms, restaurants and a tenant-led community garden.