Norwich R&D Facility
This is the nerve centre of our innovation engine – where VHK transforms scientific potential into real-world performance.
More Than R&D
Our Norwich site is labelled as a research & development facility, but that undersells what actually happens here. Yes, we research. But we also design, build, test, optimise, and validate. This is where our Bioactives – human-identical proteins, peptides, and enzymes – are first conceived, developed, and perfected. It’s not just a sandbox; it’s the proving ground where ideas become commercially viable precision bioingredients.
The Norwich facility is a miniaturised version of our Total Controlled Environmental Horticulture (TCEH) system. This system mirrors the conditions of our large-scale Swedish facility – in climate, lighting, nutrient delivery, containment, and bioprocess control.
Why Norwich?
Norwich Research Park isn’t just a location – it’s an ecosystem.
We’re surrounded by world-leading research centres like the John Innes Centre, the Quadram Institute, the Earlham Institute, and more. But here’s the important bit: no one else here is doing what we’re doing. That means no competition – just collaborative opportunities across plant science, computational biology, protein modelling, and downstream processing.
Key advantages:
- Access to shared high-end scientific equipment
- Opportunities for collaboration on bioinformatics, crop optimisation, and gut-health studies
- Lead generation from academic-industrial networks
- Direct input from leaders in genomics, proteomics, and metabolic engineering
- Talent pipeline of specialist scientists and technical support staff
- Plug-and-play compatibility with regional grant structures and knowledge-transfer frameworks
This isn’t just a research centre – it’s a plug-in innovation module, tightly connected to both academic frontier science and commercial goals. Norwich gives us the ability to test, iterate, and transition into commercial production without friction.
From Concept to Commercial
Every Bioactive we produce – whether a human-identical protein, peptide, or enzyme – starts with a question: What does the skin actually need to regenerate, restore, or resist the signs of aging?
We work backwards from that need to find nature’s most effective biological blueprints, then forward again using plant-based expression and cutting-edge AI to bring them to life – identically, safely, and at scale.
We introduce the optimised Bioactive blueprint into selected plant hosts grown in our Norwich R&D facility, using our biotech-grade Total Controlled Environmental Horticulture (TCEH) system.
Alongside molecular refinement, we use our miniaturised TCEH system in Norwich to dial in the exact growing conditions that maximise plant productivity – from lighting and humidity to nutrient balance and harvest timing.
Every setting that improves Bioactive yield, purity, or speed of growth is captured, locked in, and translated into a commercial protocol for our full-scale facility in Sweden.
Once a Bioactive hits our success thresholds – proven expression, proven yield, and validated function – we transfer the entire expression blueprint and growing protocol to Sweden, where it enters full-scale production in our flagship TCEH facility.
The entire journey, from first design to commercial readiness, happens under our roof. We don’t just make proteins -we make plant-based production systems that can deliver them with pharmaceutical precision and commercial reliability.
That’s how we build skincare from the inside out.