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The UK’s Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult used its Innovation Spotlight at the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa in Phoenix on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 to pitch what it called “federation”: shared data, test facilities and manufacturing space that therapy developers can draw on without giving up control of their own programs.
“Federation is a collective advantage without you losing control,” said Stephen Ward, the Catapult’s chief technology officer, describing developers benefiting from aggregate knowledge, shared infrastructure and collective learning.
Plan for adoption early
If nobody adopts the therapies, Ward said, “we are not doing our collective jobs”. Developers should settle the clinical pathway from the outset, he said, including the evidence needed to show a product can be reimbursed: “It’s not just efficacy. It’s not just safety.” He pointed to the UK’s Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre network.
A data institute for manufacturing
The field needs quicker development times as well as lower manufacturing costs, Ward said. “Cost of goods and price are different things and it often gets mixed up.”
Ward told the audience that the UK had just launched a £5 million pilot program for a data institute. “We know SMEs are often data poor, cash poor,” he said, asking how such companies can pool data without losing control of it or of their intellectual property. “I think to do this in the CMC space is a bit of a world first,” he said, referring to chemistry, manufacturing and controls.
Innovate UK opened the first phase of its Medicines Manufacturing Data Institute competition in September, offering up to £500,000 for projects to establish what the UK government’s grant listing calls a federated national data hub. A second phase is to be a collaborative research and development award of up to £5 million.
Paper batch records to zero
Ward cited a case study with Autolomous, in which the Catapult put a digital batch record system into an AAV manufacturing process. The Catapult reported last year that the switch cut the time taken to review batch documentation by 65%, saving 100 days’ work for a full-time quality assurance professional, and took paper used per batch from 894 sheets to zero.
He noted that Autolomous had that morning announced a partnership with Charles River Laboratories on the launch of Apollo Orchestrate, a capability within Charles River’s Apollo platform. Onyx interviewed Autolomous CEO Alexander Seyf earlier this year.
‘It’s shiny, it’s new’
On automation, Ward said the barrier is adoption rather than technology, and described working through institutions such as the Catapult as a “try before you buy” route that spares smaller companies large up-front investment.
A survey of companies the Catapult ran about a month ago found the main challenge was integration and interoperability, he said. “Adoption is organizational, not just the tech team.”
“You don’t rush head first into I want one of those systems, it’s shiny, it’s new,” he said, adding that the Catapult runs testbeds where companies can test systems before GMP.
About the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult
The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult is an independent innovation and technology organization focused on advancing cell and gene therapies, and part of a network of centers established by Innovate UK. It has sites in London and Edinburgh and manufacturing innovation centers in Stevenage and Braintree.
The Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre network, established in 2018, is focused on accelerating advanced therapy clinical trials under a £17.9 million initiative funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, with the Catapult coordinating the network.
Sources: Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Innovation Spotlight, Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, October 6, 2026; Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult event listing, team page, about page, facilities and Autolomous case study (October 2025); ATTC network; UK government grant listing and UKRI funding opportunity; Autolomous press release (October 6, 2026); Alliance for Regenerative Medicine agenda
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