Col-LAB-orate: Lab Innovations launches new campaign championing cross-industry collaboration

Lab Innovations 2025, the UK’s only event bringing together professionals from every part of the laboratory ecosystem, is launching a new campaign under the banner of ‘colLABorate’.

In a time when science must respond faster than ever to global challenges—from climate change and antibiotic resistance to digital transformation—the campaign celebrates face-to-face collaboration as the engine of progress. It invites the entire lab community to come together in Birmingham this October to share ideas, solve problems, and forge partnerships across disciplines.

The campaign focuses on five key themes where collaboration is already driving real change:

• Sustainability
• AI & Automation
• Biotechnology
• Quality & Supply Chain Compliance
• Skills & Professional Development

“Science doesn’t happen in silos,” says Marketing Manager, Nicole Hawkins. “Some of the most impactful breakthroughs in recent decades - like the Human Genome Project - happened because people with radically different expertise came together to achieve something bigger than any one field. That’s what colLABorate is all about.”

The Human Genome Project is a prime example. Over 20 research centres across six countries worked for more than a decade to map the entire human genome. It wasn’t just a scientific milestone - it reshaped medicine, diagnostics, and research itself. More recently, the global scientific response to COVID-19, including rapid vaccine development, showed how vital international, cross-sector collaboration can be when time is of the essence.

Lab Innovations 2025 will mirror this spirit of collective problem-solving, with dedicated content streams, exhibitor showcases, and networking opportunities built around the campaign themes. Attendees will see how AI is transforming data analysis in biotech, how lab supply chains are becoming more transparent and compliant, and how organisations are tackling the sector’s widening skills gap together.

The show will also feature new tools to get involved with the campaign - including a ‘What kind of collaborator are you?’ quiz, interactive polls, and an advocacy drive, encouraging visitors and suppliers alike to champion the causes they care about.

While hybrid working has transformed how the scientific world connects, there’s still no substitute for meeting face to face. “You can’t replicate spontaneous connections and unexpected ideas online” says Simon Farnfield, Event Director.  “That’s why Lab Innovations continues to be the UK’s go-to meeting place for scientists, technicians, quality professionals, and business leaders alike.”

Lab Innovations 2025 takes place in Hall 2 at the NEC Birmingham on 29 & 30 October, and is free to attend for lab professionals across academia, industry, pharma, biotech, manufacturing, government and more.

To get involved, visit the Lab Innovations website  and follow the campaign on social with #colLABorate2025.