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Supporting Science, Research & Development
The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) works with partners to build the competitiveness of our region’s businesses, people and places – vital ingredients of renewed economic growth. The Northwest is home to a number of major, world-class industrial laboratories, with total business investment on Research and Development (R&D) reaching over £2.1 billion in 2009 alone. The NWDA supports R&D in the region in order to: • Make it easier for more companies to access the world-class R&D expertise within the region’s universities; • Help universities and research centres to commercialise their knowledge and research base; and • Encourage more private sector investment in the region to attract highly skilled jobs and people to the Northwest.
Key achievements for the Science Sector: Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus is now one of only two National Science Institution Campuses in the UK. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to attract science and technology-based businesses to the region. Daresbury Laboratory and the Cockcroft Institute are based at the Campus, and construction is now underway for Vanguard House, the next grow-on building on the site. To date, NWDA funding at the Campus has helped to create over 190 jobs, assisted 146 businesses and created 46 businesses. The National Biomanufacturing Centre is a product development and clinical manufacturing facility. It was established by the NWDA to provide resource and knowledge for life science companies and academic groups to bridge the gap between laboratory science and early stage clinical trials. Since opening in 2006, over 230 businesses have been assisted by the Centre. The Northwest is also Europe’s biggest biomanufacturing region and is one of only a handful of globally-recognised bioscience communities. It is the largest exporter of pharmaceuticals in the UK and has concentrated biomedical clusters in Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire. The NWDA established the UK’s first Regional Science Council in 2002. The Council brings together the region’s universities, major blue chip companies, SMEs and research centres to set priorities and provide guidance to science and research across the region.
“Without the NWDA’s intervention and leadership, vital projects such as the development of Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and other facilities would not have happened.” John Stageman, Vice President for Global Sciences and Information, AstraZeneca