Established in 2004 by the UK Government agency ONE NorthEast, the company was one of five centres of excellence in a long-term strategy to "reposition the North-East [of England] on the world stage for research and development".

[2] CPI helps small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and companies to develop, prove, prototype and scale-up new products and processes by providing access to facilities, expertise and networks of public and private funders.

[8] CPI's work in health technology (HealthTech) has included partnering with telecommunications company Cellnex UK to develop a testbed for 5G networks within hospitals.

[17] These pharmaceutical focus areas are structured around the "Grand Challenges" business model of the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre,[18] which was opened by CPI and other founding partners in 2022.

[22] In 2021, CPI was awarded £5 million to develop a new facility for rapidly producing mRNA vaccine candidates in response to new COVID variants.

[31] As of July 2023,[update] it has made twelve investments, with one exit after the company Nuformix proceeded to an initial public offering (IPO).