If anyone is wondering if they should have listened in science class at school, now your tardiness may have come home to roost. Bioscience could be one of those rare things: recession-proof. Sam Metcalf reports.
If you have an old lab coat gathering dust in the attic, and you know one end of a test tube from the other, could it be time to jump on the science train? You would not be alone – a lot of private sector companies are taking advantage of the many grants, bursaries and commercial development opportunities the sector is throwing up.
Nottingham is fast becoming known as a city of science, innovation and creativity following its designation as a Science City in 2005. Many see Nottingham as the only real challenger to Cambridge in the UK’s bioscience sector.
The city already supports more than 60,000 jobs in the science and technology sector and this is set to grow over the next two decades with Science City status alone planning to create 20,000 jobs by 2020.
And much of the attention is focused on the Laurus Building, a collaborative venture between Nottingham’s two universities, Emda, Biocity Nottingham and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The facility is to be home to new and fast-growing companies in healthcare and bioscience. Biocity chief executive Dr Glenn Crocker believes demand for bioscience and healthcare incubation and innovation facilities will lead to further expansion.
Laurus is the icing on the cake: businesses in Nottingham are able to access world-class research and innovation opportunities.
The city’s two universities have research centres including the Centre for Biomolecular Science and the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, and longstanding links with industrial leaders such as Astra Zeneca, Rolls-Royce and Ford.
Nottingham also has the UK’s first purpose-built teaching hospital, the Queen’s Medical Centre.
Nor is money in short supply. Support for life science businesses is seemingly everywhere – the Innovation Support Grant, Grant for Research and Development, Catapult Venture Capital, Early Growth Fund, Grant for Business Investment with many other business support programmes. Yet there remains the fear that there are not enough funds waiting to take the plunge.
According to Rob Carroll of Capital Venture Managers, which has invested heavily in lifesciences across the Midlands, it is only a matter of time before they do.
Carroll says: “It’s true to say that we don’t tend to favour drug discovery or development as these take too long to come to market and it is more appropriate for others to fund such opportunities.”
In August 2008 Catapult invested a further £250,000 into Michelson Diagnostics (MDL). The injection is part of almost £600,000 of funding into MDL’s work to create a handheld probe for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Carroll says: “The device provides real-time images of sub-surface tissue at near-cellular resolution – an optical biopsy of crisp clear images at unprecedented resolution.”
Earlier this year Catapult agreed to invest up to £550,000 in Nottingham-based Capital; has also invested in Cellaura Technologies, a spin-out company from the University of Nottingham developing fluorescent-labelled reagents to the pharmaceutical industry; and invested in Monica Healthcare, which makes foetal monitoring equipment, and Haemostatix, a supplier of artificial blood products.
However, before we hail Nottingham as the shining future of bioscience, we must not forget that Birmingham also has Science City status, and the sector in the West Midlands is also benefiting from an influx of money.
The universities of Birmingham and Warwick are to receive £10m from Advantage West Midlands and the European Research Development Fund as part of the Birmingham Science City Initiative in a bid to establish the region as an international competitor in advanced materials.
The Science City Advanced Materials programme will create a virtual centre for international research into new materials for industries from aerospace engineering to healthcare and information computing technology.
Professor Richard Palmer, from the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics & Astronomy says: “Without new materials and methods for manufacturing them, it would be difficult to maintain our economic position and sustain key industrial contacts.
“To remain competitive, investment in the research, growth and commercialisation of advanced materials is critical. The development of products with improved performance and functionality will substantially depend on the development of advanced materials.”
Such investment is helping to shore up the rest of the West Midlands’ science offering.
Keele University’s Science and Business Park has signed an agreement with Helical Governetz to build another 600,000 sq ft of offices on the park, hopefully encouraging government departments to add efficiencies to move to the site.
Even Telford is getting in on the act. Inward investment company Transforming Telford has a partnership with the Wolverhampton Telford Technology Corridor (WTTC) and the University of Wolverhampton to promote the strip along the M54 as a leading technology centre.
There are two key sites earmarked: the 170-acre site at Lakeside is linked to the university’s Telford Campus. Its e-Innovation Centre has been successful and attention is turning to providing 645,000 sq ft of offices and grow-on space for businesses once they have moved out of the incubator facility, which is now full.
The other big Telford site is the 60-acre Nedgehill Technology Park at Nedgehill, soon to be rebranded as Telford Technology Park.
Transforming Telford chief executive Sarah Raper says: “Establishing a sustainable infrastructure to support a skilled workforce and developing new sites that will attract investment from technology companies is also key to the success of the town.
”Commitment to developing and promoting Telford as a key centre for technology and the creation of quality infrastructure is at the heart of the masterplan. There is still so much to be done, but confidence in the cause and commitment to following through our overall aims will benefit the town, the people and the economy.”