“Game-changing” Regulation Innovation Office announced at WCID
The UK government’s new Science Secretary Rt Hon Dr Peter Kyle MP toured Imperial College London’s White City Deep Tech Campus in White City Innovation District this week, in a visit that coincided with the launch of the government’s new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) aimed at speeding new products and innovations to market.
The minister was hosted at the I-HUB by Imperial’s Provost Professor Ian Walmsley, Professor Karen Polizzi (Department of Chemical Engineering), Professor Anthony Bull (Department of Bioengineering) and Chair of MedTechONE, alongside Cai Linton, Co-Founder and CEO of Multus – a biotechnology start-up and Imperial spin-out that is creating the key ingredients to scale growth in the sustainable cellular agriculture and cultivated meat production market.
Multus – which raised £7.9m funding in 2023 – has rapidly scaled since its founding in 2020, having developed from its early foundations in Imperial College Advanced Hackspace and Imperial White City Incubator. The company has now opened the world’s first pilot manufacturing facility designed to produce growth media for the cultivated meat industry, uniquely combining the quality requirements for cell culturing with food safety requirements. The facility is set to be instrumental in driving the growth potential of cultivated meat companies and the expansion of global supply by helping to cut costs and accelerate products from lab to market.
Science Secretary Rt Hon Dr Peter Kyle MP tours I-HUB with his hosts from Imperial College London, including Imperial Provost Professor Ian Walmsley. Picture by Alecsandra Dragoi/DSIT.
The government’s new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) will seek to support businesses and entrepreneurs to enable new products and innovations to reach the market more quickly. The RIO will initially focus on four areas of technology: engineering biology, space, AI and digital healthcare, and connected and autonomous technology.
The RIO will work closely with regulators to identity opportunities for improving and streamlining regulation and approvals. It will also work to inform the government of regulatory barriers to innovation and help to set aligned priorities for regulators.
REGULATORY INNOVATION OFFICE
“The launch of the Regulatory Innovation Office, a key manifesto commitment, is a big step forward in bringing the UK’s most promising new technologies to the public faster and safely while kickstarting economic growth.
By speeding up approvals, providing regulatory certainty and reducing unnecessary delays, we’re curbing the burden of red tape so businesses and our public services can innovate and grow, which means more jobs, a stronger economy, and a better quality of life for people across the UK.
From breakthroughs that could help doctors diagnose illnesses earlier to satellite navigation for more accurate weather forecasting and getting emergency supplies to where they are needed, quickly and effectively, RIO will make sure UK companies are at the forefront of the next generation of technologies.”
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Dr Peter Kyle MP
