Major UK Medical Cannabis Research Project Announced

The three-year scheme will seek to help the increasing need for medicinal cannabis by supporting the standardisation of the product to meet pharmaceutical grade quality via manipulation of the environment and the growth of new cannabis plant architectures.

Currently, cannabis strains vary significantly producing very diverse cannabinoid profiles. The research in Dundee will strive to use Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technologies to construct a consistent product and support the UK in maintaining its status as the planet's largest producer and exporter of medicinal cannabis.

The plants will be raised to full maturity at Glass Pharms’ specially-built 2.4-hectare semi-closed glasshouse installation with state-of-the-art sensor technology that tracks environmental needs and plant growth via a robotics-based container technique that pushes the plants through the various climate zones in the glasshouse appropriate to their developmental phase. This is hoped to optimise uniform growth across numerous harvests.

“This is an exciting project for the James Hutton Institute team. We will play an important role in furthering the pharmaceutical quality of these plants, reinforcing the UK’s importance on the world stage.” - Professor Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC)

"The APGC and Glass Pharms’ advanced cultivation facility is the ideal combination to develop and stabilise cannabis cultivars intended for use in medicine.” -James Duckenfield, CEO of Glass Pharms.

Medical cannabis was legalised in the UK back in 2018 and is positioned to evolve as an increasingly significant element of UK life sciences study and medicine manufacturing.

What is the James Hutton Institute?

The James Hutton Institute is a top UK research institution committed to the sustainable use of natural resources and land. It aims to support economic expansion, improve food security, and guide the development of rural communities via cutting-edge scientific investigation and inventions. The Advanced Plant Growth Centre is a prominent project at the Hutton Institute.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is a primary backer of world-leading UK bioscience. A component of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), it plays a key part in promoting connections that encourage the UK’s world-class research and invention system to thrive. It also must permit a research culture that is diverse, resilient, and committed.

Glass Pharms is a UK-based cannabis cultivator that exclusively supplies the pharmaceutical industry. Glass Pharms was founded to meet patient needs for a reliable high-quality supply of UK- -yielded, cannabis-based medicinal products, at a reasonable price.

Glass Pharma achieve this via a skilful cultivation team and top tech cultivation system which takes the plants through 12-weeks of varied climate rooms, creating an accelerated version of a plants typical natural growing cycle over the course of 12 months.. This ingenious environment utilises approximately 40% of the power of standard indoor cultivation facilities with the power coming from off-grid green energy.

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