
Date: Tuesday 10th March
Times: 08:30am – 4:30pm
Venue: Charnwood Campus Science Innovation and Technology Park
Agenda
08:30 – 09:15 | Arrival, Registration & Networking
09:15 – 09:30 | Welcome & Opening Remarks
“The East Midlands gateway from innovation to commercialisation and manufacturing; Part 2: finance and investment.”
- Gosia Khrais BSc (Hons), PGDip, CQI, Director, Charnwood Campus
- Raghul Senthilnathan, Innovation Advisor, Medilink Midlands
- Alexandra Archibald, Project/Business Development Manager/GIS Specialist, Midlands Innovation Health
- Nick McDonald, Partner, Marks & Clerk (Event Moderator)
09:30 – 09:50 | Keynote Address: “The MHRA Innovation Accelerator – enabling life sciences innovation “
- Louise Knowles, Deputy Director, MHRA Innovation Accelerator
09:50 – 10:00 | ‘From Connection to Amplification: Collaborating for Life Sciences Growth at Charnwood Campus”
- Sue Tilley, Chair of the Leicestershire Business Voice
Reclaiming leadership in Life Sciences Manufacturing and how it gets financed
10:00 – 10:15 | Industry Perspective: “Driving investment/capital attractiveness through manufacturing excellence and continuous improvement”
- Speaker – TBC, Horiba
10:15 – 10:45 | Panel 1: Building a Resilient Life Sciences Manufacturing Ecosystem. Moderated discussion with leaders from:
- Panel – TBC, Horiba
- Monica Huang, Country Head/General Manager Zydus UK
- Nick Smalley, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Kindeva
- Dr. Andrew (Andy) Lewis, Chief Scientific Officer, Quotient Sciences
- Moderator: Graeme Cameron, CEO, Pennine Healthcare
10:45 – 11:20 | Networking Break & Expo (35 Minutes)
11:20 – 11:35 | Importance of scaling: “Why is it important to scale and how HINs can help Innovators to scale?”
- Nicole McGlennon, Managing Director at Health Innovation Network East Midlands
- Nat Hutley, Founder, Koodos
11:35 – 12:05 | Panel 2: Financing Scale – What Investors Fund, What They Don’t, and Why, Moderated discussion with leaders from:
- Ben Reasbeck, Head of Life Sciences and Health Technology, Barclays Innovation Banking
- Christian Kumar, Founder, MedTech Makers Lab
- Andrew Mumford, CEO of Initiate Consultancy
- Sam Stephens, Director, TBAT Innovations Ltd
- Lewis Stringer, Senior Manager, UK Network – East and South-East Midlands, BBB
- Moderator: Nat Hutley, Founder, Koodos
12:05 – 12:20 | Spotlight Talk: MedTech Makers Lab Launch: The first Pan European Clinical Development Organisation overing Innovation, Funding, Clinical Adoption and Scale
- Christian Kumar, Founder, MedTech Makers Lab
12:20 – 13:20 | Lunch & Expo (1 Hour)
13:15 -13:40 | Sponsor Talks (Main Conference area)
- Martin Hyden, Partner, Marks & Clerk
- David Hawkins, CTO, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant, Sotas
13:40 – 13:50 | SPARK programme
- Matthew Vassey, SPARK Director (East Midlands), Aston University
13:50 – 14:00 | DSIT’s East Midlands lead for the TechFirst programme,
- Gwilym Williams, Regional Cyber, Lead, East Midlands
14:00 – 14:15 | Resilient Health Supply Chains: Strategic Assets for Investors in the UK
- Jan Godsell, Dean at Loughborough Business School, Prof of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy
14:15 – 14:30 | Regulatory Innovation for Faster Adoption: “Regulation as a Value Lever – Why regulation is not just a hurdle, but a critical lever for de-risking innovation and attracting funding.”
- David Hawkins, CTO, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant, Sotas
14:30 – 15:00 | Panel 3: From an Innovator to a CEO:
- Adam McGuinness, Senior Programme Manager, Plug and Play
- Nat Hutley, Founder, Koodos
- Louise Knowles, Deputy Director, MHRA Innovation Accelerator
- David Hawkins, CTO, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant, Sotas
- Helen Compton, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, NIHR
- Moderator: Al Mills, Head of Business Development, Sotas
15:00 – 15:30 | Innovators’ pitches
Moderated by Sam Stephens, Director, TBAT Innovations Ltd
- Storke | Giovanni Verma
- Medtech Makers Lab | Christian Kumar
- Warmer Networks | Ben Ravilious
- Epic Medlab – Priti Joshi
- DMU – Chris Young
15:30 – 15:45 | Closing Remarks & Call to Action
- Raghul Senthilnathan, Innovation Advisor, Medilink Midlands
- Nick McDonald, Partner, Marks & Clerk
15:45 – 16:30 | Networking Reception

