Pioneer Presents Planetary Health, our series of science events in the North East, brings together scientists, academics, and industry experts, to discuss the great challenges that we face in planetary health today and what innovative solutions are on offer or in the pipeline.

A number of the events will be held at the Wilton Centre in the North East, while others will be hosted in the South East at Kent Science Park.

The challenges of three core themes – human health in a changing climate, the circular carbon economy, and sustainable food systems – will be tackled by representatives of businesses based at the locations, as well as other experts and academics.

Check out the upcoming events in the series here.

Be part of a collective

It can be overwhelming to think about what you as one person or one company can do to help make the planet a better place. Our aim with the events is to bring people together who share a similar perspective, and to explore the opportunities that are available to make a positive impact.

Jen Vanderhoven, the Programme Manager of our Pioneer Presents series, said: “Pioneer Group has many fantastic life sciences and incubators across the country, and is home to a mass of people who are working in the planetary health space. It’s great to bring everyone together at physical events like these to exchange ideas.”

Wilton Centre: science events in the North East

The Wilton Centre played host to the series launch event, which offered insight into the aforementioned three core themes . Toby Reid, Executive Director at Pioneer Group, kicked off proceedings, saying: “Pioneer Group is driven by a belief in the power of innovation and collaboration to tackle the challenges of human and planetary health. Our role is to create the places where that can happen.”

Experts from a number of innovative companies, including Teesside University, CPI, National Horizons Centre, Mura Technology, Azotic Technologies, and Appleyard Lees, came together at the first of the science events in the North East to cover topics from decarbonisation of the plastics value chain to green innovation activity in hydrogen.

Working together

Connor Foster, Bioprocessing Training Officer at National Horizons Centre, who delivered a talk titled A UK Centre of Excellence for Bioprocessing Training in the North East, said: “At the event, I spoke about skill shortages in the UK, specifically in biopharma. It’s vital that we address the skill shortages that we’re seeing across the sector, if we’re going to make the advancements, the improvements and the innovations that we need to make in order to save our planet and meet our net zero targets.”

Professor Safwan Akram, Teesside University, led a discussion on Saving Lives, Whilst Saving the Planet: Making Biomanufacturing Sustainable. He said: “My work focuses on how we can reduce the cost of bioprocesses to bring the efficiency of these bioprocesses to a level that we can actually make them sustainable, and we can eventually get the prices down.”

Amelia Barton, Patent Attorney at Appleyard Lees, spoke on Green innovation activity in hydrogen at the first of the science events in the North East. She added: “It’s so important for everyone to work together. That’s how we reach the targets for a sustainable future, and the targets that we have set for 2030. Unless people are working together, we’re not going to achieve them. I’m optimistic that there are innovative people and businesses doing things great things to help us reach those goals.”

Jen Vanderhoven concludes: “When it comes to planetary health, it can’t be a competition. We compete against each other on so many things in life, but there’s just one planet and we’re all on it. The only way to make things better is to collaborate.”

Encouraging connections

Our Pioneer Presents events are all free to attend. The series is designed for all those based at a Pioneer location, as well as professionals working within the industry, and aims to help foster connections within the Pioneer Group community and our expert network. Themes have been purposefully selected to create discussion, engender collaboration and inspire.

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