MilliporeSigma Wins Scotland’s Life Science Award for Excellence in Community Engagement

• Prestigious award recognizes achievements in community service, volunteerism

MilliporeSigma today announced that it has received the 2017 Scotland’s Life Science Award for outstanding achievements in community engagement. The annual awards are the top industry award in Scotland, drawing hundreds of stakeholders from the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, as well as government and academia.

“This award reflects our ongoing commitment to provide volunteer programs that benefit the communities in which we operate,” said David McClelland, Head of EU Biologics Operations, Life Science. “We share this award with our employees who make a lasting impression as they lend their time and expertise, inspiring young people to explore science-related careers through our skills-based volunteer program, called SPARK. This program seeks to ‘spark’ an interest in science and ‘spark’ curiosity in the next generation of problem solvers.”

In 2016, the life science business of MilliporeSigma delivered science lessons to more than 1,250 students in the Glasgow and Stirling areas through SPARK, which provides community service opportunities for its 19,000 global life science employees. MilliporeSigma volunteers work with schools to lead, hands on scientific experiments used in real-world applications. The business also has a successful collaboration with the Glasgow Science Centre, to enable delivery of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education within that facility.

MilliporeSigma also supports employees through company-sponsored events ranging from staff fundraising activities to sports days to health promotion days, and has longstanding relationships with several charities in Scotland including Glasgow City Mission, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and Beatson Cancer Charity. In 2016, 325 employees raised £4,100 for their chosen charities, which the company matched, for a total of £8,200 donated.

MilliporeSigma has a long tradition of supporting various educational programs around the world and its BioReliance® site has been a significant player in the Scottish life science sector since 1990, providing contract biological safety testing and mission critical data that supports the development and release of cutting-edge medicines through BioReliance® Biopharma services. MilliporeSigma has five sites and more than 500 employees in Scotland.

Scottish Enterprise has been running Scotland’s Life Science Annual Awards for the past 17 years. Each year, between 50 and 60 nominations are received across several categories.