ServBlock gets EU funding to create a pharma manufacturing data space

The Wicklow start-up is leading an Irish consortium working to gain insights into the efficiency and competitiveness of the pharma manufacturing process.

Irish start-up ServBlock and Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) have secured EU funding to build a data exchange system for outsourced pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Founded last year, ServBlock uses blockchain-based auditing and compliance to help pharma manufacturers guarantee quality across their supply chain.

The Wicklow-based start-up is leading an Irish consortium on this new project, which is being used as a test case for trusted data transfer in pharma supply chains.

Other members include Cork’s Nexa Enterprise Asset Management, Dublin’s Ingeniero Solutions, Limerick’s Unison Process Solutions and Waterford’s PlantQuest.

The EU funding will help the consortium bring together experts from fields such as data science, manufacturing and engineering to further develop the data space.

A data space is a way of bringing together data from different sources to make it more accessible for various purposes.

The consortium’s data space will work to gain insights into the efficiency and competitiveness of the pharma manufacturing process, based on data from different factories, production lines and supply chains.

ServBlock received the funding alongside IMR, which works to research new and emerging technologies. The funding came from the EU’s i4Trust programme, which supports innovative research and development projects in the data space.
IMR industrial solutions architect Adrian Hovenden said collaborations such as these are key to “ensuring the continued growth and development” in the Irish manufacturing sector.

“IMR are excited to participate in this consortium and facilitate improvements in patient outcomes through improvements to pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chain,” he added.

ServBlock aims to automate pharmaceutical compliance using blockchain technology to make it more secure, timely and cost-efficient.

In October, the start-up announced a collaboration with Microsoft to develop a novel business case for the use of NFTs in pharmaceutical compliance.

ServBlock founder and CEO John Ward said the start-up is now excited to “bring the manufacturing data space to life”.

“Coming on the back of our recent collaboration with Microsoft, this opportunity will allow ServBlock to continue to accelerate growth while being at the forefront of the data space movement,” Ward added.