As the NEC Birmingham prepares for this year’s Lab Innovations show from 29-30 October, the event’s theme of ‘co-LAB-oration’ promises to be more than a simple play on words.
When the scientific community gathers at Birmingham NEC on 29 and 30 October for Lab Innovations 2025, collaboration will take centre stage. Under this year’s theme of ‘co-LAB-oration’, the UK’s largest laboratory trade show will convene researchers, engineers, suppliers and policymakers to explore solutions to five critical challenges: AI and automation; biotechnology; sustainability; quality and compliance; and skills.
“Collaboration is the backbone of science, innovation and research. Without it, the incredible progress we see today simply wouldn’t be possible,” says event director Simon Farnfield.
“These categories not only highlight how the industry is evolving, but where collaboration is most essential to keep progress sustainable.”
AI and automation
Artificial intelligence and automation are revolutionising laboratory workflows, from drug discovery to diagnostics. Machine learning now enables faster target validation and compound optimisation, reducing development costs while enhancing safety. In oncology, advances in early melanoma diagnosis have helped double five-year survival rates in the UK over the past half century.
Lab Innovations will focus on efforts to build capacity, with the Science Council and UKAS showcasing training initiatives and pathways into technical careers
So-called “explainable AI” is boosting trust among clinicians. In one trial with 76 dermatologists, AI-assisted decision-making improved confidence in identifying melanoma. Yet concerns remain: 55% of scientists believe AI models could also be exploited to facilitate fraud, underscoring the need for vigilance as adoption grows.
Biotechnology
Few sectors illustrate the power of collaboration as vividly as biotechnology. The rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines in 2020 and 2021 depended on researchers, regulators, manufacturers and trial volunteers working together at unprecedented speed.
Today, biotechnologists are addressing Alzheimer’s disease, which affects more than 50 million people worldwide – a figure projected to triple by 2050.
HIV is another example of persistence and progress. As long-term US survivor and advocate William Freshwater recalled, when first diagnosed in 1990, he had no hope, no medicine to take and no chance to survive. Being on a study gave him hope.
Freshwater said he owed his life to those people who created, ran and participated in studies that led to protease inhibitors.
The Biotech Forum, sponsored by Scientific Bioprocessing, will once again serve as a hub for discussion, covering biobanking, personalised medicine, genomics, AI integration and sustainable drug development.
Sustainability
While laboratories drive advances in environmental science, they also face their own sustainability challenges. Globally, research labs generate 5.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year; in the UK, the figure exceeds 150,000 tonnes. Producing a single rack of polypropylene pipette tips consumes 6.6 litres of water and emits 0.3 kilogr ams of CO2 equivalent.
Suppliers are responding with greener solutions, from renewable-based plastics to centrifuges using natural refrigerants.
“These categories not only highlight how the industry is evolving, but where collaboration is most essential to keep progress sustainable.”
At the show, visitors can follow the Innovation and Sustainability Trail to see low-impact technologies in action, while Andy Evans of Green Light Laboratories will again lead guided tours of the Sustainable Lab.
Quality and compliance
As life sciences supply chains become more global and complex, ensuring product safety and authenticity grows ever more critical. Temperature-sensitive biologics, for example, demand robust transport and storage conditions. Counterfeit medicines pose an additional threat to patient safety and trust.
“Sourcing high-quality biological material like nucleic acid, viral vectors, cell lines, antibodies and enzymes, and producing them with consistent quality, is difficult,” notes Zuhal Reed, senior staff attorney at Medmarc.
“With a global supply chain, it’s challenging to regularly audit suppliers. The materials must be transported in a way that keeps them safe and viable over a long journey.”
The Quality Infrastructure Forum, powered by UKAS and the National Physical Laboratory and BSI, will address these concerns with sessions on accreditation, risk management and the career paths available in quality assurance.
Skills
The UK’s ambition to be a science superpower hinges on its workforce. Yet 78% of laboratory leaders in one survey said they were worried about the skills gap, while 95% saw upskilling as crucial to innovation.
Lab Innovations will focus on efforts to build capacity, with the Science Council and UKAS showcasing training initiatives and pathways into technical careers.
The Future of Laboratories Stage, sponsored by My Green Lab, will highlight strategies to close skills gaps and prepare the next generation of lab professionals.
A platform for connection
For many, the value of Lab Innovations lies in the networks it fosters.
“Lab Innovations is important because lab technicians’ equipment is really the fundamental technology that allows us to do whatever we do,” says UCL researcher and science communicator Dr Adam Rutherford.
“The event is a cauldron for people to come together and look at what is being developed, for scientists to come and talk about ideas and how technological solutions can be applied to the problems we haven’t thought of yet.”
Keynote speakers this year include broadcaster Liz Bonnin and academic Marc Reid, while exhibitors range from major suppliers such as SLS and Thermo Fisher Scientific to first-time participants including Imperial College London. Technical specialists will be on hand throughout to answer practical questions, and highlights include the Lab Awards ceremony on 29 October (see previous pages) and sustainability pitches on 30 October.
In the words of Tom Whipple, science editor at The Times: “One of the things I’ve learned doing science is most of this is about meeting each other. It’s about getting a sense of community, a sense of the fact that there are all these people around doing similar things, making contacts.”
- Register at lab-innovations.com to take your place among the UK and Ireland’s laboratory community
Lucky thirteen
Laboratories, researchers, educators and suppliers are all accommodated within a wide span of categories in the industry-wide Lab Awards
With this year’s Lab Awards nominations closed and with the shortlist pending as co-host Laboratory News went to print, the question is: who will win this year’s trophies?
In their relatively short existence, the Lab Awards have doubled in size – a measure perhaps of their credibility within the industry.
In part this is due to the emphasis on ensuring the categories reflect properly the range of different elements within the sector: the laboratories, the suppliers, the trainers and mentors, and the individuals who make a difference.
Once again there are 13 categories:
Individual awards include: Outstanding Achievement, Lab Technician of the Year and Rising Star.
The two laboratory-focused categories are Lab of the Year and Sustainability Best Practice – Laboratory.
Six supplier categories: Supplier Excellence; Best Sustainable Innovation; Sustainability Best Practice – Supplier; Best Technology Innovation; Best Automation and Data Innovation; and Best Consumables innovation.
Additionally, there are two open categories including Commitment to Skills & Training and Best Research Project.
The panel judging the nominations similarly reflects the various elements that comprise the laboratory sector.
Chairing the judges is Sean Marshall, founder and managing director of Laboratory News parent company Synthesis Media.
He is joined by Andrew King (AstraZeneca), Jiteen Ahmed (Aston University), Kath Darlington (The Scott Partnership), Laurence Dawkins-Hall (Science Council), Raj Patey (My Green Lab) and Dr Matthew Partridge, managing partner of Technically Social, founder of ErrantScience and Laboratory News’ Laboratology columnist.
Awards presentations will take part on the first day of the Lab Innovations Show, 29 October 2025. The Lab Awards are jointly run by Lab Innovations and Laboratory News.
