From Peter Higgins, Sr. Director, IPS EMEA

IPS’ EMEA region spans across Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, and Germany, and we are extremely proud of the team established to date. As the director of IPS’ Irish operation, I see first-hand the critical part of Ireland’s growth will be primarily driven by the knowledge, skill, and passion of our engineers and the caliber of resources that we have in the region. This is underpinned by the strong academic infrastructure within Ireland and the investment by both the life sciences industry, NIBRT and engineers in Ireland to support all aspects of engineering. We have established a strong engineering leadership team supported by a quality group of process, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation, and controls engineers, and we are supported by process architects continuing to grow both our leadership and engineering teams across the region including Ireland.

Never has so much been demanded of those working in the life sciences industry during the pandemic. IPS solely focuses on the life sciences industry, so our engineers and scientists stepped up to the global  challenge right away. IPS supported the COVID Alliance where engineers from all over Ireland answered the call of our Health Service Executive by engineering expansion of our hospitals, infrastructure, sourcing PPE, and reagent for testing.

Our IPS DNA continuously promotes innovation. Before the global pandemic, IPS invested in remote IT infrastructure and both modular and fast-track engineering and construction solutions. These have manifested in solutions like iCON™ and Modulus, iCON is a hybrid construction solution of both modular and stick build technology that is defined by the project scope, schedule, and budgets. These innovative approaches by our engineers and leadership hold IPS in good stead during these challenging times. IPS continues to attract the best engineering minds across many areas like aseptic, including fill and finish, to support the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and cell and gene technologies. We’ve assembled a leading group of subject matter experts (SMEs) with knowledge in each of these fields who evaluate the technology, its application in industry, and its distribution to patients. This helps us get the necessary treatment and care to patients that need them quickly.

The engineers in our Irish office are key to the EMEA region’s success and we continually collaborate with our colleagues in Birmingham, Basel, and Frankfurt to deliver one IPS EMEA solution across the active and exciting region. We operate as one EMEA where our engineers execute projects across zero geographical boundaries with the focus of helping our clients reach their patients with engineering quality at the core of what we do. As one of my colleagues stated recently we now have a distributed workforce that allows IPS leverage from the best engineering minds.

As I watch our team navigate their way through their engineering challenges, I get a feeling of extreme pride. Our engineers chase the best solutions for their projects and drive alignment through healthy collaboration with the client’s team. No stone is left unturned and projects are always a success.

We shall continue to expand and grow, break new boundaries into the ADC, cell and gene therapy, and construction projects; not just to mechanical completion or 100%, but to operational readiness. Along with our client partners, our supply chain partners are key to our project successes. Whether they are trade construction or vendor partners, we continually engage and collaborate at earlier stages primarily to meet both the fast-track and commercially challenging nature of the projects.

I’m proud of what our engineers have accomplished since we’ve established our presence in Ireland, even more so in the midst of the pandemic. We have a strong group of engineering and architectural souls that have come together to make an impact on the health of Ireland and the world.

So what does the future hold for IPS in the region? We will continue to expand and attract engineers matching the caliber we already have; the people in IPS are what makes me proud. We have a proud group of professionals who continually rise to every project challenge. I am reminded of a recent project kick-off meeting where a client, VP of Gobal Biologics, reminded his own project team that, “The reason for engaging IPS is their reputation for challenging us [the client], and they will deliver a better project.”

Our future is full of knowledge, skill, and passion as IPS is a driving force in the life sciences market.