We are proud to announce that PolyModels Hub has officially joined the Sargent Centre Industrial Consortium as its first startup and SME member.

The Sargent Centre, a joint research institute between Imperial College London and University College London (UCL), is widely regarded as one of the world's leading centres for Process Systems Engineering (PSE). For over four decades, it has been at the forefront of research in mathematical modelling, optimization, systems engineering, and decision-making under uncertainty, helping shape both academic thought and industrial practice across a wide range of sectors.

Its Industrial Consortium brings together world-class researchers and global industry leaders including ABB, Eli Lilly and Company, Siemens, Pfizer, Shell, BP, Syngenta, Procter & Gamble, and Petronas to address some of the most complex challenges in engineering, manufacturing, and digital transformation.

Being invited to join this distinguished group as its first startup member represents an important milestone for PolyModels Hub and reflects the growing role that digital platforms, advanced modelling, and artificial intelligence play in shaping the future of process development and manufacturing.

 A Personal Connection

This collaboration is particularly meaningful because of the deep connection between PolyModels Hub and the Sargent Centre.

Many of the scientists and engineers who have helped build PolyModels Hub developed their expertise through undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral studies at Imperial College London and UCL. The principles of Process Systems Engineering have not only influenced our technology but have also shaped the way we approach scientific and industrial challenges.

This includes our Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Harry Christodoulou, whose academic journey was heavily influenced by the Sargent Centre and the wider Process Systems Engineering community.

“The Sargent Centre had a profound impact on how I grew as an engineer,” said Dr. Harry Christodoulou, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of PolyModels Hub. “Beyond the technical training, it taught me to think in systems - to understand how complex processes interact, how uncertainty shapes decisions, and how modelling can help us navigate that complexity. Those principles became the foundation of my scientific career and continue to shape how we approach challenges at PolyModels Hub today. Joining the Industrial Consortium feels like a homecoming and an opportunity to contribute back to a community that has had such a lasting influence on our team, our technology, and our vision for the future.”

For many members of our team, joining the Sargent Centre Industrial Consortium feels like a natural continuation of that journey - bringing real-world industrial challenges back into the academic ecosystem that helped shape the people behind PolyModels Hub.

A Shared Vision

At the heart of both the Sargent Centre and PolyModels Hub lies a common objective: enabling better decisions in complex systems.

Whether the application is pharmaceutical manufacturing, supply chain optimization, energy systems, or industrial operations, the underlying challenge remains the same: how do we design, optimize, and operate increasingly complex processes while managing uncertainty and balancing competing objectives?

At PolyModels Hub, we address this challenge specifically within the pharmaceutical industry. For decades, process development has relied heavily on siloed workflows, manual analyses, and trial-and-error experimentation. Through our ModelFlow™ platform, we are transforming that paradigm by converting advanced process models into scalable, reusable, and accessible digital workflows.

By automating data integration, deploying intuitive web applications, and enabling predictive in-silico experimentation, ModelFlow™ allows scientists and engineers to turn data into decisions faster and with greater confidence. Our approach is deeply rooted in the principles of Process Systems Engineering, combining mechanistic modelling, data-driven methods, and artificial intelligence to accelerate development and optimize manufacturing processes across pharmaceutical modalities.

From small molecules and biologics to advanced therapies and pharmaceutical manufacturing operations, we believe the future of process development will be driven by the seamless integration of scientific knowledge, data, and advanced computational models.

What This Means for PolyModels Hub

Membership in the Sargent Centre Industrial Consortium provides a unique opportunity to collaborate with some of the world's leading researchers and industrial innovators working at the forefront of process systems engineering.

Through this partnership, we will contribute to and benefit from cutting-edge research in modelling, optimization, digitalization, machine learning, and AI-driven decision-making. These collaborations will help us tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing modern pharmaceutical manufacturing, from process development and scale-up to technology transfer and digital transformation.

The insights generated through this collaboration will directly contribute to the continued evolution of ModelFlow™, helping us develop innovative modelling workflows and digital solutions that address the industry's most costly and complex development challenges.

Equally important, this partnership strengthens the bridge between academic research and industrial application - ensuring that advances in Process Systems Engineering can be translated into practical technologies that deliver measurable impact for pharmaceutical organizations worldwide.

As the first startup member of the consortium, we are particularly excited to bring a digital-first perspective to the community. We believe the convergence of Process Systems Engineering, cloud technologies, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence presents a unique opportunity to redefine how scientific knowledge is captured, deployed, and scaled across organizations.

Looking Ahead

Our vision for the future is clear: to make pharmaceutical process development smarter, faster, and more predictable.

By working closely with researchers at the Sargent Centre and fellow industrial partners, we aim to push the boundaries of advanced process modelling, AI-enabled decision-making, and digital manufacturing. Together, we will continue developing technologies that reduce development risk, accelerate scale-up, and shorten the path from scientific discovery to patient access.

This partnership reflects our commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation while remaining deeply connected to the scientific foundations that made our company possible.

We are honoured to join the Sargent Centre Industrial Consortium and look forward to contributing to the next generation of innovation in Process Systems Engineering and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

We cannot wait to see what we build together.

Read more about the Consortium: https://sargentcentre.org/partnerships/industrial-consortium/