Breakthrough Issue 16

Is Your Lab Water Pure Enough?

The

Intelligence Platform

UKSPA CHAIR, PROFESSOR PATRICK BONNETT

Collectively, we need to be smarter and more connected

Levelling up, world class places, global science superpower… science parks, technology incubators, innovation centres and other innovation locations and areas of innovations have never been more important.

No one could argue with the profound need: the UK is one of the most geographically unequal major economies in the world. This inequality has worsened over the past three decades. GDP per capita in some east German regions now exceeds that in some northern English regions. The fact that these inequalities persist – in areas such as public transport connectivity, in educational attainment and adult skills shows that ‘more of the same’ simply won’t cut it.

UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)’s strategy for the period 2022-2-27 was published last month. It emphasises the importance of ‘world class places’ and the role of vibrant research and development (R&D) intensive businesses, agile and creative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and scale-ups, recognising that R&D-active sectors are at the heart of high value job creation and economic growth.

The role that our sector plays in anchoring clusters of research and innovation excellence that drive growth and crowd in private sector investment in all parts of the UK and also in creating new thriving science, research and innovation clusters is un-paralled.

UKSPA

info@ukspa.org.uk

www.ukspa.org.uk

l Chief Executive James Chaffer

l Head of Membership & Communications

Sell

With over 130 innovation locations spread across the United Kingdom we are uniquely placed to deliver high value knowledge intensive economic growth –and social benefit from Oban to Plymouth, from Belfast to Aberystwyth to Norwich. Not only do our members provide the assets around which other innovation, commercialisation and business growth activities aggregate, they act as critical ‘connectors’ – joining the dots at local, regional, national and international levels.

We therefore welcome UKRI’s strategy commitments to enhance the growth of capabilities and clusters of research and innovation excellence, and innovation ecosystems, including those centred around their own institutes and campuses, that build on regional strengths and enable local economic growth and social benefits. We will also be encouraging UKRI and other government colleagues to take a wider view and adopt a similar approach across the wider innovation system architecture in order to maximise the contribution that the sector can make to current and future economic growth and prosperity.

If we are committed as a society to genuinely address these deep seated and iniquitous inequalities, then collectively we need to be smarter and more connected in order to shift the dial. We need to optimise the huge investments made across the entire innovation ecosystem – in infrastructure, people and specialist support mechanisms to ensure

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that we leverage these resources and the collective knowledge which lies behind them. UKSPA represents a massive four nation resource to help address many of the objectives laid out in documents such as the UKRI Strategy and the Levelling Up White Paper.

That’s why I am delighted to be able to welcome our new Chief Executive, James Chaffer to UKSPA. James joins with a wealth of experience of the sector and its members. He served as an UKSPA Board member for a number of years, representing the interests of business affiliates and has worked across the sector, most recently as Operations Director at the University of Nottingham Innovation Park.

This will be my last Chair’s piece as I will be standing down from the Board in the Autumn, having served on the Board for the past 10 years. I am also pleased to be able to announce that John Leake will be taking on the role of Chair of UKSPA. Many of you know will know John from Sci-Tech Daresbury; he has served on the Board for a number of years and currently acts as UKSPA Company Secretary and Honorary Treasurer.

Both James and John bring extensive expertise and take up their roles at a time of enormous opportunity to increase both the reach and impact of the Association and its members with our membership level at its highest in our history. I wish them well and look forward to seeing UKSPA go from strength to strength. ■

Breakthrough is published on behalf of UKSPA by Open Box Media & Communications, Premier House, 13 St Paul’s Square, Birmingham B3 1RB. T: 0121 200 7820.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the consent of UKSPA.

Open Box Media & Communications are proud to be corporate sponsors of Heart Research UK (Midlands).

The dawning of a new era

Iwould like to start by saying how privileged I feel to be writing my first ‘Breakthrough’ article as Chief Executive of UKSPA. Having played a very active role with the association for over 15 years, initially as a business affiliate and more recently as a Full Member during my time at UNIP, I am immensely proud to be able to complete the circle by taking the helm at this exciting time for the science and innovation sector. I am particularly aware of the significant role that this publication plays in enabling the association to increase its reach, with a readership going way beyond the membership, encompassing the wider science and technology sector, including stakeholders, thought leaders and policy makers.

The first quarter of 2022 has seen several changes in the UKSPA leadership, with Jim Duvall stepping down after four years as Executive Director and 14 years of loyal service to the association. Jim has left a great legacy, having grown the membership to its highest level, and I wish him the very best for a well-deserved retirement.

You may have also seen that Patrick Bonnett has recently decided to relinquish the role of UKSPA Chair,

stepping back down to the position of Vice Chair, with John Leake of Sci-Tech Daresbury being appointed as the new Chair, and Graham Hewson of Imperial White City Incubator taking on the role of Company Secretary and Honorary Treasurer. I would again like to express my thanks to Patrick for his assured guidance of the association during a potentially tricky 18 months, and congratulate John on his appointment, which is richly deserved. I look forward to working closely with John and the board to drive the association forward, with several key objectives being identified for the coming year, particularly around the two critical topics of research/data collection and policy influencing.

P r OUD h ISTO ry

As a membership organisation with a proud history of delivering highly regarded conferences and events, providing a powerful mix of knowledge sharing, sector insight and networking opportunities, we are pleased to have been able to return to face-to-face events. I was really excited to be able to welcome over 120 members to our recent sell-out Spring Conference at The Oxford Science Park, where we had two days of

excellent presentations, discussions and exhibitions on themes relating to growing clusters, building communities, sustainability and innovation support.

Planning is already underway for a larger-scale Conference, further details of which will be announced shortly.

One of the key objectives for the association is to become more engaged and visible in lobbying and influencing on innovation policy, both at a regional and national level. With that in mind, we have recently partnered with Bidwells for a one-day conference ‘Creating a Scientific Superpower’, to be held at the QEII Conference Centre in London on 20th June – further details are available on the UKSPA website. We are also in ongoing high-level discussions with UKRI around the role of science parks and other innovation locations in promoting technology clusters and the wider place agenda.

l ET ’ S g ET EN g A g ED

My primary objective over the coming months is to engage with as many UKSPA members and stakeholders as possible, whether that is through a site visit, at an event or virtually. To that end, I have now attended several virtual meetings of the UKSPA East of England and Scotland groups, which have been particularly useful in gaining a better understanding of the issues affecting different locations and sectors, as well as getting to know the individuals involved. I am keen to support an expansion of the reach of these local groups, as well as the possibility for them to start meeting face-to-face in the near future.

If you would like to arrange to meet with me to discuss any burning issues or great ideas you have, please do get in touch. ■

Please send your comments and feedback to the UKSPA team: info@ukspa.org.uk

w ELCO m E

CH IEF E x ECUTI v E , j A m ES CHAFFER

Advocacy Innovation Impact

14 A TIME TO l ISTEN

The new CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, which manages Norwich Research Park, Roz Bird, discusses her views, values and strategic vision.

19 l E v E ll IN g UP wh ITE PAPE r: wh AT DOES T h IS MEAN f O r UK r ESEA r C h AND INNO vATION ?

Steve y ianni and j ane g ate from AIRTO take a deep dive into the g overnment’s ‘Levelling up w hite Paper, published in February.

10

r I gh T f O r MU l A

Steve Bates talked to Ian Halstead about his decade as CEO of the UK’s BioIndustry Association (BIA).

50SEEDS O f SUCCESS

Zayndu CEO Ralph w eir explains to Ian Halstead how its innovative plasma-based technology can revolutionise the global food-growing sector.

PEST P r ACTICE

34PheroSyn’s Daniel Bahia explains how its innovative pheromone-based products can eradicate cereal, legume and fruit crop pests – without using chemical pesticides.

38 T h E IMPACT O f SCIENCE PA r KS

Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE, CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, tells Breakthrough why the Hertfordshire-based location is more than the sum of its parts and has developed into a thriving ecosystem.

54 Th E PAT h TO T h E MOST SUSTAINAB l E l ABS IS T hr OU gh ADAPTI v E r EUSE , BUT P r OCEED CAUTIOUS ly

The latest installment from I 2 SL highlights the sustainability benefits of adaptive reuse and explains why careful planning is needed to ensure that these projects are successful.

48 PO w E r IN g T h E w EST MID l ANDS ’

INNO vATION j OU r NE y

Birmingham City University’s j oanna Birch talks about the institution’s innovation journey, the successes so far and the challenges that lie ahead.

MACKEN z IE AIMS h I gh

m idlothian Science Zone ( m SZ) chair, j ohn m ackenzie, offers a personal take on Scotland’s potential to become an international location for life sciences.

26 w O r T hy O f w A l ES

CEO Dr Rhian Hayward outlines the vision and the strategy behind the development of the AberInnovation campus.

30 rEIN v ENTIN g T h E DE l I v E ry PAT hw Ay f O r A l I f E SCIENCES C l USTE r

Charnwood Campus Science Innovation and Technology Park’s g osia Khrais and Dr Lucy Alexander explain how they have reinvented the delivery pathway for life science cluster support.

MED TEC h MOTI vATIONS

Knight Frank partner j ennifer Townsend identifies the dynamics driving the UK’s med-tech sector and the latest market trends.

S h A r ED CON v ICTION S

Co-founder of Itecho Health, Adrian Brown, discusses the company’s origins and its growth ambitions.

60 E y ES ON KADANS

Kadans Science Partner’s j ames Sheppard outlines its plans to build Europe’s largest commercial lab space at Canary w harf.

Advocacy

Right formula

It takes a rare combination of skills to prosper for 10 years in charge of a high-profile trade association with an international presence, whose members range from global plcs to start-ups and whose requirements are as diverse as their product portfolios.

The ability to navigate the corridors of Westminster and Whitehall, and the agility to cajole an SME one day and coax a potential investor on another, make the BIA role even more challenging.

Discovering that Bates also chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a board member of the European Association for Bioindustries for seven years gives genuine concern about the length of his working week.

If life was a Netflix drama, this gregarious individual would have used his long-time interest in genomics to clone himself.

In reality, as he muses crisply through highlights of the last decade and looks to the future, it’s undeniably impressive that he can combine multiple roles so successfully.

“At its simplest, the BIA is the representative voice for life sciences, presents the sector’s collective views to government and also operates support schemes for the smaller players to help them get going and get growing,” says Bates.

“It’s satisfying that we are considered influential and well-regarded, and I believe the diversity of our membership base enabled us to grow and thrive over the last decade.

Steve Bates talked to Ian Halstead about his decade as CEO of the UK’s BioIndustry Association (BIA).

The world according to UKSPA and its members

Steve Bates, CEO of BIA, received a OBE for ‘services to innovation’ in 2017

“We are very lucky to have a vast panoply of companies large and small, from finance houses and VC providers to some of the biggest pharma and biotech brands, and an array of advisers, regulatory experts and others who work within the sector.

“Equally, we pride ourselves on not being London-centric. It’s crucial to be well connected and engaged with all niches of our industry around the country, to visit the local and regional clusters and to visit the science parks where our sectors are represented.”

His view that an intense local focus is essential, as companies look to tackle global challenges, is a recurring theme during his passionate tour-de-force.

“To deliver great science, you need great people. Yes, you also need a lot of money to research, test and deliver solutions, and to take early-stage ideas and translate them into commercial products and services, but money is no substitute for talent,” says Bates.

“The UK is fortunate enough to have a fantastic science base, and an established network of science parks, but equally, we know that attracting the next generation of talent to enable the industry to scale up is a challenge.

“We work with multiple agencies and other stakeholders to ensure that the provision of training and support is always tailored to the precise local requirements. If footloose companies can’t recruit the talent they need, they’re always liable to move to where it’s available.”

E v O lv ED T h INKIN g

Under the unprecedented and unforeseen challenged imposed by the pandemic, the UK’s biotech industry had to evolve new ways of thinking and working, and Bates doesn’t hesitate when asked for instances.

“I think the clearest example was the development of the UK Vaccination Taskforce (VTF) which was set up in April 2020 with a very demanding brief,” he says.

“It was asked to secure access for Covid-19 vaccines for the UK, make provision for the international distribution of vaccines, and strengthen the capacity and capability within our

manufacturing industry and its supply chains to provide resilience for possible future pandemics.

“Four of the original 10 members came from the BIA, including myself, and we found ourselves working even more closely with the government than previously.

“It was a tremendously collaborative effort which delivered phenomenal results underpinned by very fast decision-making and the ability to understand cutting-edge science.

“Going forward, I think the lessons we all learned about the power of partnerships, and the processes which enabled such rapid progress will be very useful during future health crises, and also in our day-to-day operations.”

One notable change across all sectors and all geographies was the rapid and widespread adoption of platforms such as Zoom and Teams, to allow organisations and companies to stay in touch with those working from home.

“As a trade association, we experimented with novel ways of communicating with our members, from holding online quizzes to our webinars which rapidly became an excellent way of sharing information,” says Bates.

“An unexpected benefit of remote working was that members in areas which were geographically distant engaged more easily (and more cheaply) than previously.

“Some elements of the virtual communication processes will now stay with us, just as the lessons from the VTF have done.

“By the nature of our association, it’s always important to support members, but for some of the smaller and pioneering ventures with intense demands on their time, the virtual approach has significant benefits.

“All players understand the challenges, but the largest have the physical and financial resources to address them. For the smaller players, we’re conscious that we need to be flexible to deliver what support and advice they need via the channels which best suit them.”

Asked to look even further back, Bates recalls his early days at the BIA and particularly when it released its 10-year vision in 2015.

“I knew about the work of the BIA from my time at Genzyme, and when I was an advisor to John Reid, when he was Secretary of State for Health, so before I arrived, I was aware what a privilege it would be to become CEO,” he says.

“Our core aim was to become the world’s third largest bio-tech cluster, but there were other strategic challenges, not least to make the industry more patient-centric, attract more growth equity and unlock the potential of knowledge transfer.

“ I THINK OUR BIOTECH INDUSTR y HAS REALL y m ATURED DURIN g THIS PERIOD

T HE SHOOTS OF g RO w TH w ERE CERTAINL y THERE A DECADE A g O , BUT w E NEEDED TO BE BI gg ER , LOUDER , FASTER AND BETTER . ”

Steve Bates with Minister for Science, research and Innovation, george freeman MP

“The lodestone for me was that the last decade has seen so many remarkable scientific advances which were translated into viable and commercial products, treatments and services, particularly in genomics and diagnostics.

“The sheer scale of growth has been remarkable, as has the size of the leading players which would have been unimaginable a decade ago.

“It’s also been very pleasing to see the funds and VCs which have been attracted here, including the best from Boston and others in the Eastern US, and the investment vehicle of Abu Dhabi.

“We’ve also been able to develop and deliver vaccines which made an enormous difference to the health of people in our country, but also the health of our economy, and likewise in many other countries.

“Great science has translated into great companies, which have created significant employment and wealth, so it’s been an amazing journey to have been on, and it’s always great to have one’s thoughts and ideas given international validation.”

r EAP wh AT y OU SO w Bates believes the UK is now reaping the benefits of its long-term commitment to life sciences and bio-tech.

“I think the industry learned from the successes of the 80s and 90s. The pioneering research done on monoclonal antibodies, for instance, which became the catalyst for the concept of personalised therapy.

“Equally, there are always lessons to take from examples where things are less successful. It’s fantastic to see the buildings owned by British Biotech many years ago now being utilised by a company which specialises in gene therapy solutions.

“I think our biotech industry has really matured during this period. The shoots of growth were certainly there a decade ago, but we needed to be bigger, louder, faster and better.”

Asked to suggest elements which could be included if the BIA was to roll out a new 10-year vision, Bates highlights an array of possibilities.

“We could certainly see how some of the innovative technologies which surfaced during the pandemic might evolve for different uses. The mRNA platform, for instance, which has demonstrated its potential to

revolutionise the development and manufacturing of vaccines.

“I think we’ll also see bio-tech evolve further to develop a series of solutions to address sustainability challenges, not just with regard to Net Zero, but also around food security, particularly to help those areas of the world where it is increasingly challenging to survive.

“I’m also excited by the discussions around alternative proteins, the idea of making burgers and other traditional meat products in new and very different ways.

“We have a history of innovation within this niche. The first meat substitute, Quorn, was developed and marketed in the mid-80s by Marlow Foods, a jv between Rank Hovis McDougall and ICI, and hopefully the UK can play a significant role in creating the next generation of alternative foods.”

CAPITA l g AINS

Bates is equally enthused by the opportunities within genomics and AI, highlighting London as an established location for scientific collaboration, and the willingness of Silicon Valley enterprises to base senior scientists and AI researchers in the capital.

“It’s an affirmation that this country plays a great role in bringing these exciting technologies together, and a recognition of the potential which can be unleashed in the years ahead.”

Equally though, he readily accepts that strategic challenges do exist, particularly the need to identify and recruit the next generation of talent.

“Some issues are perennial. Just because you won the Olympics last time round, doesn’t mean you’ll win the next one of course, so we have to constantly invest in our science and to maintain our position,” he says.

“I’m confident that we will retain our pre-eminence, but equally, it is a challenge

of which we all must always be mindful.

“My biggest concern is that given the scale of growth we are seeing in our sector at the moment is to make sure that have enough skilled people able and willing to join our exciting industry, and at the volume we will require.

“It’s important to work constantly with training providers and others to ensure we build flexibility into the recruitment process.

“It could be, for instance, that skilled operatives from a sector which isn’t growing (such as combustion engines) could perform production roles within the manufacturing arm of a biotech.

“Equally, I’d hope that youngsters will be given greater access to science subjects during their school-days, and also the technical skills required to work in the industries of the future.”

Bates says young people who witnessed the remarkable achievements of biotech during the pandemic have become interested in careers within biotech and also underlines the BIA’s commitment to diversity.

“More than 40% of our board are female, and there are fantastic role models out there who will really help inspire the next generation of talent,” he says.

“Deborah O’Neil at NovaBiotics, Kath Mackay at Bruntwood SciTech, Kate Bingham at SV Life Sciences, and Sarah Gilbert at Oxford University come to mind, but there are many more.

“I think there’s also now a wider realisation that working in sciences doesn’t mean just writing articles for peer-reviewed publications, but that it offers so many enjoyable and stimulating careers, with opportunities to create very practical solutions which will benefit society.” ■

For further information about the BIA, please visit: www.bioindustry.org

Steve Bates alongside Dame Kate Bingham, Managing Partner of Sv health Investors

A time to listen

The new CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, which manages Norwich Research Park, Roz Bird, discusses her views, values and strategic vision with Ian Halstead.

The droll reminder that everyone has just one chance to make a first impression is so old that no-one can remember who coined it.

However, everyone who meets Roz Bird after her arrival at Norwich Research Park’s sprawling campus will certainly remember their encounters with this effervescent individual.

One of the very first to meet her on-site described her as ‘ambitious – but down to earth”, and it’s an astute observation.

“The first thing I’ll be doing is listening to as many people as possible and listening hard. You can discover some things about people and places in advance, but when you’re new, it’s really time to appreciate the views of others,” says Bird.

“When I led projects for MEPC in Milton Keynes and Bristol, I was just parachuted in, and it was about listening to as many people as I could to understand how they thought - and the local issues which they faced.

“I love doing that. Seeing all the moving parts, as it were, and then sitting down to discuss what we can all achieve together.”

is known for being a world-leading centre for research into plant science and food nutrition

Bird reveals an impressive depth of knowledge about the myriad requirements for her new role, the park and its tenants, and crisply outlines her previous achievements, yet does so with gracious ease.

Yes, she’s ambitious, but it’s an ambition which embraces everyone connected with the Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, the organisation which manages the park, its partners and its many stakeholders -as in her previous roles.

It’s a rare blend and makes it easy to understand why the headhunters and interview panel were so impressed.

Bird gained her first insight into the science park community as UKSPA’s business development manager. after completing a diploma in marketing. Her upward trajectory began after joining MEPC as Granta Park’s marketing and asset manager.

“My five years with UKSPA helped me understand what made science parks tick and also their contribution to the wider economy. Moving to Granta allowed me to learn about the operational requirements needed to run a park,” she says.

A post-graduate diploma in Estate Management enhanced her knowledge of planning and property matters, and she came to understand how tenant companies could best be advised and promoted, and how new ones could be attracted.

INTE r ESTIN g C h A ll EN g ES

MEPC then offered Bird the chance to take charge of Silverstone Park, where it aimed to develop a technology park on 130 acres alongside the famous motor racing circuit.

“My time there was a fabulous experience, and also an unusual and very interesting challenge,” she recalls.

“The park was famous internationally, of course, as the home of the British Grand Prix. However, I went round to every company to understand them and their sector, and discovered it was about so much more than just motorsport.

“The potential was huge, and I had the opportunity to grow the community. It was about building new space, refurbishing old buildings, and making it a great place to work.

“In my time, we delivered more than 650,000 sq ft of new space, and secured planning permission for another 1.5 million sq ft. After four years, we had almost 60 companies on the park and now there are more than 90.

“You look at Silverstone today, there are companies in aerospace and medical devices, in advanced engineering and manufacturing, and in electronics and software.”

Delivering a successful business location is, of course, about far more than providing the right physical space and support services, and Bird also transformed the park’s profile and reputation.

“I’d done loads of networking at Granta Park and around Cambridge, so it was quite a surprise when I went to Silverstone and discovered there were no places for people to meet; not even a networking organisation,” she says.

“I talked to Barclays and suggested there should be a networking function for the motor-sport companies there and everyone in their supply chains.

“There was a perception that Silverstone was only about Formula One, and I needed to explain to so many people that there was far more to it than that.

“We got funding for research to identify what was happening within an hour’s drive of Silverstone which confirmed the presence of numerous hi-tech companies. We then launched a networking organisation to formally create Silverstone Technology Cluster (STC) which I chaired.”

SUPE r -C l USTE r S

Once the park and cluster were thriving, Bird then used the contacts she’d made along the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor to create a super-cluster, by bringing together eight of the hi-tech cluster organisations to give the region’s tech business community a new and united voice.

It was a sign of the STC’s impressive progress that it was able to take its place alongside such high-profile peers, and an indication of Bird’s boundless commitment that she then led the group, the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Super Cluster.

Bird also founded the MEPC Women into Construction (WiC) initiative to help address industry’s perennial problem with gender equality.

“I noticed that when visiting companies and organisations in construction, the audiences were almost exclusively male. Although the constant refrain was that they struggled to recruit skilled people, there was no real realisation that they needed to be more inclusive,” she says.

“There was casual sexism, at worst there was abuse, and there was also pigeon-holing of female talent. A lazy and unthinking assumption that some jobs were only suitable for men and others were for women was widespread.

“If you’re trying to raise expectations among young people and telling them about the amazing opportunities which a career in construction could offer, you have to make sure their enthusiasm isn’t knocked out of them in their first week by wrong comments and behaviour.”

Tropic Biosciences develop high-performing commercial varieties of tropical crops at NrP

The catalyst for WiC came as Bird listened to a BBC programme which pointed out that only 1% of manual roles in construction were taken up by women in the UK - and that it was one of the lowest rates in Europe.

“I listened as they quoted instances of women going to construction sites and finding the behaviour and language unacceptable, and decided something had to be done,” she says.

“MEPC is a major spender in construction, so we first had some very grown-up conversations to point out that this wasn’t a men vs women issue.

“However, companies did need to think about how and where they recruited, and then what culture and environment they expected people to work within.

“People got very excited about the idea. We got Julia Muir, who has done so much to increase female leadership in the automotive industry, to speak to people.

“She has written very passionately about gender equality, founded the Auto30Club and is the CEO of Gaia Innovation, and helped so much to capture their attention and raise the issues involved.

“We then set up a course which ran for a year looking at her achievements, studying her ‘Change the Game’ book and focusing on what needed to be done to increase diversity It was really inspiring.

“Employers had said for years that they wanted to do better and develop a more inclusive workplace culture, but they hadn’t put any thought or commitment into the process.”

P ASSIONATE AND PATIENT Bird’s time with MEPC certainly enabled her to demonstrate both those qualities, particularly when working on major urban regeneration projects.

In Bristol, the company wanted to demolish three office buildings from the 1960s, construct 300,000 sq ft of Grade A offices, with ground-floor retail space, and restore the ancient Mary le Port church which was bombed and ruined during the Blitz.

However, though the proposals seemed market-driven and sensitive, they took two years to navigate the planning process, underlining Bird’s ability to be both passionate and patient.

There was also recognition of her strategic leadership skills in March 2022, when the Motorsport Industry

Association shortlisted Silverstone Park for its prestigious ‘service to the industry’ award.

Now though, all Bird’s accumulated experience and expertise is being put to a new and demanding test, as CEO of a park with more than 90 companies, 12,000 employees and 3,000 scientists, researchers and clinicians.

“It has world-leading credentials and is one of Europe’s largest single-site concentrations of research into food, genomics and health,” she says.

“All four of its institutes are internationally renowned and they are complemented by the University of East Anglia and a university hospital, who are all partners.

“Talking to the institutes’ directors, and hearing so much about the amazing research which is happening at the park, I firstly felt that I really wanted to be there, and secondly, I believed that my experiences can help them reach the next level.

“I realised after starting work at Granta, and it was emphasised at Silverstone, that you can’t have a list of things you consider to be important, because everything matters.

“If a company, an organisation or a research park is going to achieve its fullest potential, then everything has to be right.

“Looking at the park’s assets will be crucial. Do they have the right physical assets and the right people? Are people happy to work there? Do changes need to be made to the systems and processes to achieve even more?

“You also have to factor in the local, regional and national economies. What are the partnership and the park doing for all of them, and could they deliver more? Equally, do people on the outside understand everything the park can do for them?”

Bird happily enthuses about supporting New Anglia LEP and other local stakeholders on profile-raising,

meeting regional politicians and working with government departments.

By chance, Science Minister George Freeman is on her new patch as the longserving MP for mid-Norfolk.

“There will be so much to do, but that’s why I love running a science park or a cluster. Two days are never the same, and there are so many important things to do to help tenants realise their potential,” says Bird.

“Once I’ve really listened to everyone, the second stage will be understanding the highlights of their research, and what new ideas are in the pipeline.

“We must ensure we are maximising our commercial revenue from all the public money which is coming into the institutes and research teams. There’s an element there of discovery on my part, to learn what is happening.”

Setting her goals for the short, medium and long-term will be the third phase, and it’s interesting to hear how Bird aims to benchmark her impact after the initial weeks and months.

“I’ll know if everything is working because people will really want to be there. It’s about creating a desire for the location, just as I achieved at Granta Park and Silverstone.

“When you hear of people saying they wished they worked for a company based there, or they talk very positively about visiting there, that is crucial feedback.

“It’s about everything. The signage. The arrival experience. The coffee. The friendliness. The opportunities. The culture. The atmosphere. Having the right buildings, the right lease structures and the right events.”

It’s a heady and powerful conversation - but there even Bird has to end. Her beloved Golden Lab wants to go for a walk and is not taking a shake of her head as an answer. ■

For further information, please visit: www.norwichresearchpark.com

Colorifix, a bio-tech company that specialises in developing sustainable methods of dyeing, are based at NrP

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Levelling up White paper What does this mean for UK research and innovation?

February saw the long awaited Levelling up White Paper published by government, offering a welcome explanation of the oft repeated promises to create fairness and tackle inequality across the country by:

a. boosting productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector, especially in those places where they are lagging;

b. spreading opportunities and improve public services, especially in those places where they are weakest;

c. restoring a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost; and

d. empowering local government and communities

R&D and innovation are identified collectively as a lever for the government to deploy with two key headlines of note:

i. the government pledges to ‘put science and technology at the heart of a new economic model’. In doing so, and in line with the plan for ‘Building Back Better’, government is pledging to distribute the boosts to funding already announced including:

• a commitment to invest at least 55% of its total domestic R&D funding outside the Greater Southeast by 2024 25;

• increases to the National Institute for Health Research investment beyond the Golden Triangle;

• expansion of the regional footprint of Dstl.

Overall, R&D investment outside the Greater Southeast will grow by at least a third over the Spending Review period

and at least 40% by 2030, with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long-term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth (Mission Two). It is important to note that the Levelling Up agenda is not intended to result in any areas being “levelled down”. R&D actors within the greater Southeast can therefore still look forward to seeing overall increases in public spend on R&D in their region, albeit other areas may receive greater proportionate increases.

DE v I l IN T h E DETAI l

This is all welcome, but as ever the ‘devil’ will be in the detail, the government pledges to ‘target £100m of investment in three new Innovation Accelerators, private-public-academic partnerships which will aim to replicate the StanfordSilicon Valley and MIT-Greater Boston models of clustering research excellence and its direct adoption by allied industries’. These initial pilots will be centred on Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow City-Region. The government is billing these as new clusters to act as ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution Foundries’, leveraging our global lead in scientific research.

This will be delivered with Strength in Places Funding, but to be successful it is critical that a diverse range of parties contribute to the decision making on establishing these accelerators or clusters, with an independent strategic view being taken of where the comparative strengths and opportunities actually exist, and the outcomes of the government’s current independent review of Research, development and innovation organisational landscape being led by Sir Paul Nurse, should be

steve yianni Freng presideNt, airto

Jane Gate eXecutiVe director, airto

Levelling Up the United Kingdom Executive Summary

given consideration. Research excellence is important, but it is not the only factor in deciding if the potential for delivering successful innovation exists. Industry engagement needs to be secured for these clusters to be successful. Whilst all this is welcome, it is important to recognise the urgency that is needed to advance these commitments in support of the UK’s overarching goal to reach 2.4% of GDP intensity for R&D by 2027.

MO r E D!

Furthermore, it could be argued that the principles of fairness and balance which prevail in the Levelling Up White Paper, may also be applied to public spending on R&D, to address the imbalance between research and development without any detriment to the former. The UK’s current imbalance of public funding for ‘R’ versus ’D’ is in marked contrast to proportions of public expenditure made

by competitor nations, where there is more emphasis on supporting the exploitation of basic research by investing a commensurate amount in ‘D’.

AIRTO has called for ‘More D!’, because the relatively lower levels of public funding support for ‘D’ arguably reduce the catalytic effect of the funding on gearing in industrial support and private investment for R&D. In taking a fresh approach to boosting R&D over the coming decade, we advocate that to capitalise on increased public investment in R&D, government actions should incorporate the principles of ‘Levelling Up’ to include working with businesses, industry and the IRT sector to design additional assistance to support market driven innovation priorities, to complement and balance the existing emphasis on research activity.

Technology driven innovation grant support mechanisms must be industry friendly, and accessible and flexible to meet the needs of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprise). Mechanisms for anticipating future barriers to the adoption of new technologies (e.g., regulatory barriers) must be put in place. New approaches to cultivating innovation focused skill sets are also going to be essential to improve the capacity for exploiting and commercialising technologies.

Such an approach would act to rebalance public spending to support more closer to market development activities, which are so critical in achieving successful commercial exploitation of R&D. This action would bring the UK more in line with competitor nations, which have a more balanced distribution of public R&D spend, and would provide further incentives to increase the much needed private sector spend on R&D in the UK.”

Overall, the Levelling Up White Paper is welcome clarity from the government in Westminster about its priorities for the Research, Development and Innovation components of its strategy for our economy and society, but it is important to understand that it does not constitute any new announcements of funding. ■

For further information, please visit: www.airto.co.uk

“ IT COULD BE AR g UED THAT THE PRINCIPLES OF FAIRNESS AND BALANCE w HICH PRE v AIL IN THE L E v ELLIN g U P wHITE P APER , m A y ALSO BE APPLIED TO PUBLIC SPENDIN g ON R&D, TO ADDRESS THE I m BALANCE BET w EEN RESEARCH AND DE v ELOP m ENT w ITHOUT AN y DETRI m ENT TO THE FOR m ER . ”

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Mackenzie aims high

m idlothian Science Zone ( m SZ) chair, j ohn m ackenzie, offers a personal take on Scotland’s potential to become an international location for life sciences.

midlothian Science Zone is the catalyst for a fast-growing cluster of scientific expertise in multiple disciplines, from the animal and human healthcare embraced via its innovative One Health strategy to agritech, biotech and aquaculture.

It sits at the apex of a network of science parks, research institutes and innovation districts, underpinned by an inter-connected network of researchers, academics and individual tenant companies.

It’s already an eco-system of significant size and scale, and given its ambitious growth strategy, chairing the zone will clearly be no simple task.

However, the steering group driving MSZ’s evolution certainly seems to have chosen well in appointing John Mackenzie, and he’s well aware of the myriad challenges ahead.

“I’ve come in to help take the zone to the next level, working with Emma McCallum, the project coordinator, to deliver the key objectives of the MSZ business plan, to stimulate economic growth and attract more companies to Midlothian,” he says.

“We are especially keen to work with entrepreneurs, start-ups and established businesses with a collaborative mindset and/or a One Health focus.

“One Health as a concept has been around for ages but it’s a relatively new area of research interest, which analyses the relationships between animals, humans and their eco-systems.

“It also looks to integrate human medicine, veterinary medicine and the environment, so very much in tune with several of Scotland’s established areas of expertise.

“Emma works with Lesley Parsons, who provides marketing support to highlight the achievements of MSZ, its tenants and its partners at regional, national and international level, and although we’re only a small team. I’m confident we will continue to punch above our weight.”

T r ACK r ECO r D Mackenzie has an impressive 20-year track record of knowledge exchange and technology transfer, creating and mentoring start-ups at the universities of Dundee and Edinburgh.

He is equally well-versed in the intricacies of corporate finance via accountancy training with EY, and subsequent roles in the public, private and voluntary sectors, and the ability to read a balance sheet will always be an asset.

In March, Mackenzie was appointed as Director (Scotland) for the ambitious We are Pioneer Group (WAPG) which provides place and platforms for life science companies; and creates innovation ecosystems at science parks, innovation districts and technology-based locations.

The group also includes the MSZ partner Edinburgh Technopole and runs its own Pioneer Life Science venture fund which launched in early 2022.

“We have two biotech and technology cluster sites in Scotland: BioCity Glasgow, and Edinburgh Technopole, both being part of the recently formed WAPG,” he says.

“WAPG builds and operates life science and technology campuses across the UK and beyond, providing office and lab space for companies of all sizes, from spin-outs to multi-nationals.

“In recent years, we’ve seen a great deal of enthusiasm and entrepreneurial initiative coming from the life sciences’ sector in Scotland, but they just haven’t had enough space they required.

“It’s ironic, but because the initial phases of our collective Scottish science community proved so popular, the occupancy levels are now extremely high, which means in such a footloose sector, that we then lose potential tenants to Stevenage, Cambridge, Europe and elsewhere.

“However, I see a real opportunity now for us to retain and indeed attract life sciences entrepreneurial talent and highly skilled scientific talent, such as medical chemists, by delivering quality space for start-ups and SMEs looking for grow-on space, whilst also attracting companies wishing to work in their supply and manufacturing chains.

“I think our country has always been great for innovations and creative ideas, but it’s been less good at delivering the infrastructure and the mentoring which are required to achieve commercialisation and scale.

“We need to rise to those challenges, not simply so these companies can create wealth and employment here, but so we can also attract greater interest from global corporations in life sciences.”

TIME AT T h E r IC

Mackenzie first came to notice outside Scotland’s Higher Education sector, when

appointed CEO of the Roslin Innovation Centre (RIC) at the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush campus in Q4 2014, whilst simultaneously holding the same role at the Roslin BioCentre.

The latter is now closed as its role and functions were transitioned to RIC via the integration of the Roslin Institute – once internationally-known as the birthplace of the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep.

“Our strategy at RIC was to deliver fit-for-purpose space, then to fill it with the right type of tenant, to work it – via academia to business (A2B) as well as B2B – and then finally to grow it by building a pipeline of new strategic tenants,” says Mackenzie.

“We initially expected to operate an accelerator along traditional lines, by attracting start-ups and spin-outs, then mentoring them through a growth phase, but spin-outs can be hard work, which I’d already appreciated from my time at Dundee University.

“We then switched the focus to collaboration with Deep Science ventures, and ran a successful pilot scheme, the Food & Agriculture Science Transformer (FAST) programme for two years.

“It was predicated on market-led opportunities, rather than taking a technology ‘push approach’, but whilst focusing on people and talent.

“Looking ahead, I think that we will need many more agile and innovative venture creation and business growth models to attract talent to Scotland and create start-up businesses which can then be scaled up here.”

RIC is the business gateway to Easter Bush, a triple helix business model with a focus on animal health, agritech and aquaculture (AAA).

“I’ve been involved with life sciences through its Industry Leadership Group, particularly the AAA brand for a number of years, and there’s now a good opportunity to extend it further within MSZ through the One Health concept,” says Mackenzie.

“There are promising signs and greater awareness of the enormous opportunities which exist, and now I believe we are ready as a country to take everything to the next level.”

Whilst Mackenzie is a passionate believer in the power of social media and digital marketing channels, he also sees a place for more traditional in-person, profile-raising events and was one of the lead organisers of A3Scotland22 conference in Edinburgh at the end of April.

“It was an inaugural not-for-profit conference for the AAA sectors, designed to be a showcase to highlight just how much progress had been made in Scotland,” he recalls.

“Well before it launched, there was a tremendous interest generated by all stakeholders, and it was also very pleasing to be over-subscribed in terms of sponsors,” he says.

“Now we will be carefully studying the feedback from visitors, exhibitors and everyone else who contributed, to understand what worked (and what didn’t), and then to see how we can evolve

roslin Innovation Centre sits at the heart of the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus

‘Canter’ - a sculpture by Andy Scott - depicts a heavy draft horse and reflects the heritage of the royal (Dick) School of veterinary Studies

this A3Scotland model for another conference, perhaps in two years.

“It won’t work if it becomes a static format, but it will help Scotland see itself in an international context within life sciences, not least to understand how we can all achieve returns from investing in this AAA sector, not simply financial returns, but also social and environmental returns.

“That said, we can achieve nothing in isolation. The public sector, private sector, new companies, young people, established companies and society itself must all come together to build on the early successes of MSZ and AAA, together with all our respective partners and stakeholders.”

ST r ON g E r TO g ET h E r

Equally, Mackenzie realises that current data and baseline information are crucial to understand what has been achieved, and which areas will need investment both in the short-term and further ahead.

“Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes commissioned a scoping exercise to identify Scotland’s AAA life science assets, strengths and also its weaknesses which were the basis for a tremendous number of discussions at the A3 conference,” he says.

“The single most important element for me is that we ensure the right innovation environment for organic growth. As the sector expands, we also

need to increase our strategic focus.

“Without wishing to sound like a politician, it is true that we are all stronger together, and we need to strengthen our networks and to leverage the combined power which they generate.

“It’s about connectivity, not simply at the scientific level, but also as individuals. I recognise the journey which the life sciences’ sector in Scotland has been on during the last 20 years, as well as my own personal journey, and we should not be distracted by focusing on the destination.

“It’s much more about the journey. We need to realise the potential and to accelerate our progress, and I believe Scotland can develop a significant international presence in life sciences and deliver tangible benefits for all its stakeholders and shareholders.”

The country’s shortage of both incubator and grow-on space has seen potential tenants move south, but Mackenzie isn’t pessimistic when asked about the issue.

sectors, and has already attracted innovative entrepreneurs and companies striving to make a significant contribution to global challenges.

“Entrepreneurs and companies in all sectors always need to go to the location which is best for them. The decision might be based on their search for talent, the need to access capital, or proximity to science and it might even be about lifestyle,” he says.

“I think Scotland can put together a compelling offer to attract and retain talent, but we always have to be pragmatic, and accept that on occasions, some tenants will choose to go elsewhere.”

However, he has greater concerns about the pending loss of ERDF grants and other EU funding which will come to an end during 2023.

“It will be a challenge. For me, we need to see the private sector step up and fill the gaps which will inevitably appear because of our new relationship with the EU. The UK government also won’t be able to deliver the funding which it could pre-Covid,” admits Mackenzie.

“Equally, I think you just have to create the best innovation eco-system which you possibly can, put all the mentoring and business support mechanisms in place, and then step back and let people take and make their own decisions.

midlothian Science Zone (MSZ) was launched in October 2016 and is a cluster of science parks and research institutes, set in a rural environment against the backdrop of the Pentland Hills with easy access from Edinburgh.

It is a thriving community, open for collaboration within a One Health focus (animal health, human health, agriculture, aquaculture, technology, data). MSZ offers a wealth of research expertise and capabilities across its key

Its aim is to develop the science and business community and to stimulate economic growth within the Midlothian region and beyond.

MSZ, which has already been recognised for having highest concentration of animal-related research expertise in Europe, is led by a steering group which includes Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus, Scotland’s Rural College, Pentlands Science Park and Edinburgh Technopole.

Other members are the Moredun Group, Edinburgh Pharmaceutical Processes, BioCampus, Quotient and Midlothian Council. ■

“Perhaps we will move towards the US model, where science parks and innovation districts are built and supported by the business community, because there is very little (if any) Federal support available there.

“It’s a challenge, but one for which we are all prepared for and I know that private sector organisations are well aware that they will have to take on new responsibilities as the present funding structures disappear.”just bricks and mortar. ■

For further information on Midlothian Science Zone, please visit: https://midlothiansciencezone.com

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Worthy of Wales

Aberystwyth University has been intertwined with the agriculture sector since before its first building formally opened in 1872, so it’s no surprise that agri-food is a core focus of AberInnovation.

However, the wider range of sectors represented there, the line-up of innovative tenants and the presence of an impressive number of related organisations are equally worthy of note.

Hayward’s desire to position AberInnovation as a driving force within the national economy, and to increase collaboration with local and regional companies is evident, as she outlines its strategic ambitions.

“The university’s expertise stretches back more than 100 years, which is a huge asset as we look to identify potential commercial partners,” she says.

“We can work with companies from anywhere in the world as well as from within Wales. As we raise our profile, I’d expect to see entrepreneurs and start-up teams coming to the campus from the widest geographies.”

The campus received £40.5m of funding from the European Regional Development Fund (through the Welsh government), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Aberstwyth University.

AberInnovation only held its official opening in October 2021, but the seeds for its creation lay in discussions ten years earlier between the university and the BBSRC to tackle challenges around food, water and energy.

CEO Dr Rhian Hayward outlines the vision and the strategy behind the development of the AberInnovation campus.

“The initial focus was on food security and climate change, and now the emphasis also includes translational R&D in the circular economy,” says Hayward.

The brand has also evolved from the descriptive ‘Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus’ to its current snappier version – AberInnovation.

f I v E z ONES

The campus focuses particularly on strategic sectors of crucial importance to both the region and the Welsh economy, agri-tech, bio-tech, food and drink.

Hayward says each of its five zones has been customdesigned for collaborative R&D in line with the principles and practices of the circular economy.

One start-up (AMIGROW) uses machine learning and AI to analyse satellite images to increase crop production and yield.

Another (PlantSea) aims to replace environmentally damaging petroleumbased plastics with sustainable and biodegradable

alternatives derived from seaweed and other organic materials.

“One of our rising stars, which was spun-out of the university, is ARCITEKBio, who are commercialising a platform which will process agricultural waste into high-value products,” says Hayward.

“They have particularly high hopes for their EcoXyl process, which can extract sustainable natural sweetener from straw and wood, and they believe it will really disrupt the global market for such products.

“The substance they extract (xylitol) is proven to have multiple health benefits, especially for people suffering diabetes, but until now it’s only been produced by synthetic means.

“It can be used to replace sugar and artificial sweeteners in many consumer items, such as chewing gum, confectionery, food and baked goods, has no after-taste and helps protect children’s teeth, so you can understand why it is attracting so much attention.”

An imposing array of related initiatives is co-located on the campus; including a bio-refining centre of excellence (BEACON), its flagship productivity accelerator, BioAccelerate, the Future Food Centre, and a Wellbeing and Health Assessment Unit.

An Advanced Analysis Centre is present to support tenants and interact with Aberystwyth University, and a Centre of Excellence and Innovation in Livestock works on the fundamental science required for precision livestock

systems, including such issues as feed, genetics and bioactive compounds.

The National Plant Phenomics Centre is also co-located with AberInnovation, building on the accumulated data, expertise and knowledge which the university has acquired since it began researching crops which could thrive on the country’s western seaboard.

“Professor John Doonan and his team have been doing remarkable work, developing future technologies and approaches which can respond to the multiple challenges of climate change,” says Hayward.

“Their work is also bringing forward a new generation of plant biologists and engineers. One of their computer science undergrads recently developed an innovative scanning system which means grain analysis can be completely automated.

“Previously, grains had to be studied by hand, which as you can imagine was a painstaking and laborious process, but now researchers can be freed up to carry out more interesting tasks.”

Unusually, there is a not-for-profit social enterprise (YMA) at the AberInnovation incubator, which looks to create people-focused public health services and solutions.

“They’re passionately determined to help create a primary care structure for Wales, which will address the needs of the current and future generations, and we’re hoping to attract more companies operating in life sciences,” says Hayward.

PlantSea aims to replace environmentally damaging petroleum-based plastics with sustainable and biodegradable alternatives

Xylitol crystals - a sustainable natural sweetener - extracted by ArcitekBio

P r ODUCTI v E r E l ATIONS h IPS

Away from the campus environment, AberInnovation has established productive relationships with Ceredigion and Powys County Councils and science parks, including Menai’s M-SPARC.

Hayward expects such partnerships to expand during 2022 and onward into delivering more business support programmes for companies based in the region.

“We see ourselves as complementary to Wales’s other innovation assets, speak to them very regularly and are always keen to collaborate.” says Hayward.

“Supporting companies in the circular economy space in the processing of food waste to recover valuable commodities is our USP.

“Helping the food supply chain and the farming community are such important and long-term elements of the regional economy, and we can do this with our facilities.

Hayward is leading the campus through a 10-year strategic plan, which focuses primarily on bringing more members of the business community to the campus and university academics to create impact from research expertise.

“We’d love to set up more business support programmes. In general, rural mid-Wales doesn’t have the level of provision which you’d find in urban areas, and one particular area of focus is the need to create more high-value jobs,” she says.

“We need more better-paid jobs and more in innovation. Equally, we want more people who are born here to stay here and grow their businesses here. The county councils (Ceredigion and Powys) are very supportive of that approach - as is the Welsh Government.”

Last November, Hayward and her team secured £1.2m from the UK-wide Community Renewal Fund for three projects to deliver business support in mid-Wales, and that funding stream runs until June.

AberInnovation also benefits from its position as one of the five UK campuses funded by the BBSRC.

Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus, Norwich Research Park, Babraham Research Campus and Rothamsted Enterprises complete the quintet, and they in turn then operate within a wider network of UK Research & Innovation campuses.

“It’s very much a family group, its collective research interests are already very significant, and they are growing which contributes a great deal to this campus,” says Hayward.

“The BBSRC funding is important, but so is the money we’ve received through the ERDF. Obviously, European funds will end in 2023 so we’re working hard to identify other potential sources of revenue.”

AberInnovation has aspirations to grow in terms of physical space to accelerate the high growth potential start-up companies in its incubator.

“We’re only one year old, and so far we’ve been focused on establishing a baseline of information and data to underpin our future growth strategy,” says Hayward.

“We have the evidence that lots of companies in Mid Wales have the potential to grow, and they are very interested in conducting innovative product development in our facilities.

“We currently have a strong pipeline of R&D projects, are building our case for additional investment and believe that we will hear positive news as we move into the second half of 2022.”

Find out more about AberInnovation at:

“ H ELPIN g THE FOOD SUPPL y CHAIN AND THE FAR m IN g CO mm UNIT y ARE SUCH I m PORTANT AND LON g- TER m ELE m ENTS OF THE RE g IONAL ECONO my, AND w E CAN DO THIS w ITH OUR FACILITIES ”

D R RHIAN HA yw ARD , CEO , ABERINNO v ATION

Reinventing the delivery pathway for a life sciences cluster

Charnwood Campus Science Innovation and Technology Park is a dynamic and rapidly growing science park situated in the East Midlands on a former Astra Zeneca site.

Commercial and Marketing Director, Gosia Khrais BSc (Hons) PGDip CQI, who manages and operationally manages the science park, and Head of Business Development and Senior Business Development Manager, Dr Lucy Alexander, explain how they have reinvented the delivery pathway for life sciences cluster support, which has been instrumental in moving it from a start-up to a sustainable park in less than 8 years.

The site vision of the campus, being the driving force of the largest life sciences cluster in Leicestershire, is firmly rooted by three guiding principles;

• Social - Wellbeing of campus occupiers, wellbeing of local residents.

• Environmental - Impact of development, continuous tree planting schemes, wild meadow projects.

• Economic - Sustainability of the campus, benefits to the supply chain and local residents.

The pharmaceutical legacy of Loughborough dates back to the 19th century and the site first opened in 1968, originally housing Fisons Pharmaceuticals, becoming the home of Astra AB in 1995, then Astra Zeneca in 1999. The site leaves a history of many marketed drugs that have benefited patients all over the world.

Gosia Khrais led a team that has created a successful formula to redevelop the site following suggestions included in

the Transforming UK Life Science Sites - Toolkit for Action, launched by Rt Hon George Freeman on Charnwood Campus in March 2016, with the site being granted the UK first Life Sciences Opportunity Zone Status in 2017. Enterprise zone status followed swiftly in 2018, and most recently it has been awarded High Potential Opportunity status for Rehabilitation, due to the depth and breadth of strength in Medtech and chronic and acute rehabilitation expertise in the region.

The site is home to a number of blue chip organisations and several high growth SME’s, including: Almac Group’s drug development services, 3M Health Care’s national centre, Kindeva Drug Delivery System’s manufacturing and R&D, and Charnwood Molecular recently expanded medicinal chemistry and process research and recently acquired biology services company –Aurelia Bioscience, while Medilink Midlands moved into the campus at the start of the year. The campus also delivered the fully refurbished premises for the Charnwood Lighthouse Laboratory for DHSC during COVID-19 pandemic.

gosia Khrais and Dr lucy Alexander

Dr I v IN g DE v E l OPMENT

Ms. Khrais explained, “As a historic pharmaceutical R&D site, the five step pathway for developing life sciences cluster support is likened to the drug development pathway:

Step 1 - Target Discovery or Communication of our Vision

To allow companies to “Discover” the campus and to quickly identify why this may be their perfect location a clear vision and business support toolkit has been developed. These are promoted through UK inward investment teams and other channels. The site relies heavily on word of mouth and recommendation as that provides the best “hit” rate in identifying companies that are a good fit for the campus.

Step 2 - Hit identification or Partnership formation

Understanding a potential partner’s requirements, vision alignment, building relationship and trust have been identified as essential ingredient to the formation of a successful partnership.

Early involvement of M&E and construction experts expedites the process of initial development of refurbishment plans to identify the match.

Step 3 - Optimisation

Having laid the foundations, this step focuses on optimising building design and all other partner requirements such as recruitment, early integration into the local ecosystem and tools to help the relocation and change management process within the company.

Step 4 - Getting Real

(Build out and change management)

In the drug discovery pathway this is when real pre-clinical results are generated. In our pathway, the construction phase and “real” buildings are delivered and teething problems ironed out in partnership.

Step 5 - Ecosystem Integration

In the final stages of drug discovery, the generation of real-world evidence of the effectiveness of the drug is gathered. In this stage the integration of the partner into the ecosystem and the effectiveness of the pathway are measured.”

C ASE STUD y

Charnwood Campus has recommissioned its world-class synthetic and chemistry research facility to the highest standard to cater to the needs of leading pre-clinical discovery contract research organisation Charnwood Molecular, in a £54m construction project. Part-funded (£3.5m) by the Enterprise Zone reinvestment fund facilitated through co-operation with the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) and Charnwood Borough Council (CBC), the new laboratories provide substantial capacity for future growth and expansion of Charnwood Molecular’s medicinal chemistry and process research teams, as well as the addition of drug discovery service lines.

The three-storey (111, 000 sq ft GIA), state-of-the-art synthetic and chemistry research facility recommissioning and upgrading project has been fully designed by Couch Perry Wilkes. The construction element was awarded to Mellor Bromley, and Addison Hunt were appointed to deliver the QS part of it. The project was fully managed by Charnwood Campus Team. Deployment of highly experienced partners has enabled the delivery of the building on time and budget even with the additional challenges and material shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carl Hubbard, Associate Director at Couch Perry Wilkes, said: “It is a privilege to be involved in such a prestigious project to bring a state-ofthe-art building back to life to support the development and growth of its ambitious new occupier, following Couch

Perry Wilkes’ previous successful delivery of the Lighthouse Lab facility at Charnwood Campus. The works have extended the life and improved the building’s efficiencies and provide Charnwood Molecular with a futureproof base in which expand its team and service lines.”

CEO of Charnwood Molecular, Steve Allin, said: “The truly world-class facilities at Charnwood Campus provide us with a key piece in our strategic plan to become the provider of choice for integrated drug discovery and development services within the global life sciences sector. The new laboratories will provide substantial capacity for future growth and expansion of our medicinal chemistry and process research teams, along with the addition of related drug discovery service lines.”

lOOKIN g TO T h E fUTU r E

Gosia Khrais said: “It is an exciting time for life sciences sector in the UK. Charnwood Campus as a Life Sciences Opportunity Zone have proven it plays a leading role in driving the life sciences sector agenda forward and is indeed starting to create meaningful and agile Life Sciences Cluster in Leicestershire.”

Dr Lucy Alexander said: “Being able to develop the Campus transition from a property proposition to a site that offers a variety of business support packagesincluding events, seminars, new partnerships delivering multidimensional support programmes, new talent coming to the Campus through the TSI and ambitious plans for new infrastructure developments, including a gym and sports facilities and an Innovation Centre with small spaces for start-ups - is a stimulating process.” ■

For further information, please visit: http://charnwoodcampus.com

Charnwood Campus - cluster pathway

Area design and build Biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility for WMFTG

Area is on site to deliver the brand new 120,000 sq ft development – located in Havant, near Portsmouth, Hampshire – for WatsonMarlow Technology Group’s (WMFTG) BioPure brand. The facility will support the company’s ambitious vision, growth and commitment to helping customers worldwide – increasing provision of vital fluid path components to the biopharmaceutical industry.

The project is driven by BioPure’s aim to significantly increase productivity by scale, simplifying production operations to lower manufacturing costs and reduce process validation. Andrew Mines, Managing Director of WMFTG, added, “This is an exciting development for our BioPure brand and the expansion that we see moving forward.”

Relocating from its previous site near Portsmouth, this move will enable BioPure to provide a more comprehensive level of support, while maintaining high quality control on products and services. The new facility is equipped with a variety of manufacturing, engineering, production, logistics and administration spaces.

A new benchmark for future workplace transformation

Given the complex nature of this truly unique project, with large client facing

areas, flexible offices, cleanroom manufacturing spaces and warehousing, plus a focus on change management throughout the entire process, Area were well placed with our offering to add real value to this project.

This project marks a ‘new beginning’ for BioPure – moving boldly into the future with a renewed vision and workplace strategy leading the way. It is an opportunity to refresh their workplace environment that has evolved over time, with an exciting new solution that will set the benchmark for future workplaces across WMFTG – helping to deliver an employee experience consistent with a new way of working.

Area’s extensive service offering on this project includes cleanroom design and engineering, detail design and specification, through to delivery and project management.

For more information on this landmark project, please visit: www.area.co.uk/news-knowledge

Area are one of the UK and Europe’s leading and most progressive laboratory design and fit-out specialists.

Their understanding of the intricacies of designing and building contamination controlled, low risk and accredited laboratory spaces is second to none.

Their consultative approach ensures that they understand clients’ needs and can deliver bespoke, productive and costeffective solutions that support good manufacturing processes.

From cutting-edge research laboratories to hard-working chemical environments, they’ve designed and built them all. This specialist knowledge and experience helps clients save time and money, while delivering an aesthetically pleasing laboratory space.

Area’s team share a common passion for creating laboratory spaces and a collective purpose of delivering an exceptional experience for their clients and their employees. Their highly skilled team of laboratory specialists are experts in connecting the physical environment, and the experience it delivers, with their client’s objectives.

Area provide complete laboratory construction solutions, including architectural elements, mechanical and electrical services, medical gases, UPS systems, contamination control, security, risk management, support spaces, furniture, equipment coordination, waste management and change control. ■

For more information on Area’s laboratory services, please visit: www.area.co.uk/sectors/laboratory

CULTURE PLATES AND DISHES

UKSPA’s definitive guide revised

UKSPA represents, promotes and supports a diverse network of 120 member locations that include science parks, research campuses, city-based innovation districts, technology incubators and innovation centres across the UK. UKSPA’s business members include leading practitioners that support this network. Together, they have produced a comprehensive guide for:

Managers and staff

Investors

Developers and operators

Policy makers

All of those who have an interest in developing and delivering this vibrant sector.

The publication is supported by a series of individual case studies that add additional perspectives on the content. These are also available to download at www.ukspa.org.uk/pdosp

Members: £60.00 plus postage

Non members: £75.00 plus postage To order visit: www.ukspa.org.uk/pdosp Please call UKSPA on 01799 532050 for details of bulk copy orders.

9

AvAilAble

Innovation

Extending the frontiers of UK science and industry

Pest practice

To lovers of Britain’s hills and dales, midges are simply annoying pests which can ruin a good day’s walk … and the night.

However, to farmers and anyone looking to grow wheat, barley, oats, pears, peas, rye and other in-demand crops, they are the stuff of nightmares.

One estimate suggests British growers lost a million tonnes of grain to midges in a single year, and as global temperatures continue to rise, insect pests breed more rapidly and consume more of their favourite grain.

For years, many growers used Dow Chemicals’ chlorpyrifos product to protect their crops, but as public sentiment turned against the use of chemical-based pesticides, the UK

became the latest country to ban the treatment in 2016.

Since then, farmers have been forced to use less effective solutions, but now a team of agri-tech scientists from PheroSyn is offering them a growing number of products based on natural pheromones.

Insects, such as the pea midge pest, use pheromones to communicate with potential mates, but they can be fooled into the fatal belief that the naturally occurring chemical scent produced by PheroSyn is the real thing.

The fledgling enterprise is a spin-out from Rothamsted Research, which was founded in the 1840s and is one of the world’s oldest agricultural research institutions.

PheroSyn’s Daniel Bahia explains how its innovative pheromone-based products can eradicate cereal, legume and fruit crop pests – without using chemical pesticides.

Its founders have more than 40 years’ combined experience in researching issues around pheromone-based sustainable pest management.

“Dr Mike Birkett, Dr John Caulfield, Dr David Withall and myself co-founded the company to provide high-value pheromone solutions to reduce pesticide use for more sustainable pest management and to help mitigate climate change” says Bahia.

“I was a synthetic chemist at Rothamsted Research and specialise in the techniques to identify and produce insect pest pheromones.

“By understanding how specific pests communicate with each other, we can then create these natural chemical scents for sustainable solutions which are scalable.

“Pests use pheromones to mate, attract or warn each other of any immediate danger, so by putting our product into traps in the crop fields it can act as a sexual lure for the female.

“It’s very difficult for the insects to adapt because our synthetic pheromone is identical to the substance they create

“One of the most important benefits of pheromones versus the traditional chemical-based pesticides is the relative volumes which farmers and crop growers will need.

“You are looking at just milligrams per hectare, so it’s much more cost-effective. A small vial or rubber membrane is used for each trap and they are then placed across the fields, so you only need to use the same tiny amount which the pests are using to communicate.

“An added bonus is that the pheromone is specific to the pest you want to target, so it doesn’t harm any insect predators in the area which happens with chemical pesticides.”

MONITO r IN g APP r OAC h

Aside from controlling the insects directly, the pheromone traps provide monitoring and early detection of the midge pest, which can allow growers to make much more effective use of conventional pesticides.

“By surrounding the crop with just a few of these traps, the grower can easily determine whether pest management is necessary and, if so, when the most effective time will be to make the application,” says Bahia.

“We’re looking to make pesticide use smarter and more targeted in crop protection, for safer, greener and costeffective insect pest management that is crucially also climate-friendly.

“As the UK’s temperatures continue to rise, pest outbreaks are becoming increasingly unpredictable, so its vitally important for the grower to have a monitoring approach in place.”

Bahia points out that midge swarms can migrate long distances on winds,

“By UNDERSTANDIN g HO w SPECIFIC PESTS CO mm UNICATE w ITH EACH OTHER , w E CAN THEN CREATE THESE NATURAL CHE m ICAL SCENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS w HICH ARE SCALABLE .”

D ANIEL BAHIA , CO FOUNDER , PHEROS y N

PheroSyn co-founders (l r): David withall, Michael Birkett, Daniel Bahia and john Caulfield

Pear orchards

before settling on a crop. After mating, the female lays her eggs into the developing grain buds of the crop.

“Once the eggs are laid, it’s too late for spraying, so the insecticide is needed early to kill the female before the eggs enter the grain buds,” he says.

S h AKE C l IMATE C h AN g E

In 2019, the four scientists took their research through the SHAKE Climate Change programme, developed jointly by Professor Angela Karp, director and CEO of Rothamsted Research, and partners at Cranfield University, University College London and the University of Hertfordshire.

SHAKE is backed by the UK-based charitable arm of one of Europe’s largest banks, Societe Generale, and provides up to £140,000 funding to UK-based ventures, plus a year of training and mentoring from specialists in their niche.

“It was a huge moment for us,” recalls Bahia. “It was great just to get through the initial application process.

“However, as academics it was crucial that people with solid business experience could then work with us on our business model, marketing strategy and other aspects about which we were just starting to learn.

“We were lucky enough to be assigned Dr Claudio Marinelli, who had 20 years of experience in founding, managing and investing in technology-based start-ups, and Paul Rous, who founded two very

successful seed capital funds, Fuel Ventures and Black Finch Ventures.

“They understood all the challenges we were likely to encounter because they’d faced them, and their guidance was crucial.”

With the £140,000 funding in place, Bahia was able to join PheroSyn fulltime and the four colleagues then formally established the company and rented a chemistry lab and office space at Rothamsted Enterprises.

Another significant step came in February 2022, when the company was able to create a CEO role, not least to fine-tune its strategy ahead of an upcoming fund-raising round.

“We have the required finance in place for the short-term, but we’ll then need to generate new investment to allow us to recruit more people and expand the scale of our business,” says Bahia.

“Some products are commercially ready now, while new products are being developed and trialled to see how we might be able to commercialise them and take them through a full validation programme.”

Later in Q1 came another important moment, when PheroSyn won a £500,000 grant from Innovate UK, allowing it to validate its pheromones via a thee-year collaboration with Rothamsted Research and Andermatt Biocontrol UK.

The latter is a major supplier of biological-based plant protection and pheromone-based products to farmers and growers.

The core pest targets of the partnership are pear gall midges and pear leaf midges, and assuming field trials demonstrate the effectiveness of PheroSyn’s products, the focus will move on to end-user validation and the establishment of a potential supply chain.

“If everything goes well, we should be able to bring these products into the agricultural market during 2023,” says Bahia.

“Our products use such small quantities of the natural pheromones that we can manufacture them ourselves, and once we have product validation we can use them to attract potential investors.

“In the medium-term, we will expand our product portfolio and engage with more farmers and growers to provide our pheromones for more efficient and effective pest management.

“We see significant opportunities as companies and agricultural organisations continue to reduce their use of traditional pesticides, and public opposition continues to build against products which can only be created by the use of fossil fuels.” ■

For more information, please visit: www.pherosyn.com

Adult pea and bean weevil in field beans

The impact of science parks

(£34m net GVA) to the UK economy in 2020 and supported around 1,600 jobs in total.

fAST f O rw A r D TO ADD v A l UE

As developments progress, the report predicts that SBC’s contribution to the national economy will increase five-fold to £417m GVA p.a. (£165m net GVA per year) by 2040 with the potential to support a total of 7,300 jobs.

gO v E r NMENT r ECO g NITION

Ascience park has the potential to surpass its component parts and become much more than a collection of discrete companies, labs and offices. It can evolve into an ecosystem that makes a difference to its occupiers, its community and to local and national economies.

By wrapping supportive practices around occupiers, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing, they can become more than the sum of their parts. Provided with the right ingredients and environment, a science park can develop into a powerhouse of innovation.

C ASE STUD y

Situated in Hertfordshire, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) is a world-leading science park of global significance. It has a focus on advanced therapies and is at the centre of the largest cluster of cell and gene therapy companies in Europe.

SBC was formed in 2010 with funding from GSK (£11m), Wellcome Trust (£6m) and the UK government (£21m). It is a not-for-profit organisation where surpluses are reinvested in value adding services and facilities to support occupiers. It now has around 40 occupiers which are provided with access to mentoring, scientific equipment and business support as well as introductions to investors.

S UPPO r TIN g TO T hr I v E Occupiers say they are attracted by the reputation and image of

SBC, as well as its central location and access to facilities and expertise. Since it opened, 87% of its occupier companies have continued to prosper, compared with the national survival rate of 65-70% for start-ups after the first three years.

Bioscience companies at SBC say its support has enabled them to speed up product development time by an average of nine months. This has implications beyond the boundaries of the campus. Given the focus of the organisations based there, this has the potential to save and change lives.

UK ECONOM IC CONT r IBUTION

Economic contribution is measured in gross value added (GVA). This is the measure of how much wealth is created by an organisation. According to independent research from Charles Monck & Associates1, SBC-based companies contributed £87m GVA

The significance of the campus has been recognised by government through the award of ‘Life Science Opportunity Zone’ status. Stevenage has also been named a ‘High Potential Opportunity’ location by the Department for International Trade.

Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman MP (left), said, “The excellent work being done at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst is a perfect example of the kind of public/private partnership cluster we need to see across the whole of the UK.”

O UTSTANDIN g IN v ESTMENT IN OCCUPIE r COMPANIES

Since opening in 2012, occupiers based at SBC have attracted finance of £2.8bn through private equity, public offerings and acquisitions. This has grown exponentially. Just five years ago, that figure was £220m (see figure 1).

Stevenage may not traditionally be the first place you think of when asked to name a science park. However, research published by Beauhurst, courtesy of Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership2 , found that, from 2017-2020, the total private equity investment in biotechnology raised in Stevenage was similar to that of Cambridge, Oxford and London. In addition, the average deal size in Stevenage was more than five times

Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE, CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, tells Breakthrough why the Hertfordshire-based location is more than the sum of its parts and has developed into a thriving ecosystem.

greater than in the other clusters (see figure 2).

w h AT DOES T h E f UTU r E h O l D ?

SBC has created an exciting, knowledgeable and collegiate community where interaction and collaboration are the norm. It supports bioscience companies and enables them to grow and thrive. The combination of business and scientific support means that SBC is adding value to its occupiers, their research endeavours and to the local and national economies.

Already a globally recognised campus, as the site develops there is the potential and ambition to increase the size of the contribution made to the economy and there will also be a significant number of high-quality jobs created. SBC’s supportive ecosystem will continue to have a positive impact on an increasing number of occupier companies.

SBC is committed to helping bioscience companies to turn innovative research and development into commercial realities, making it possible for them to support the delivery of therapeutic treatments to improve the health and quality of people’s lives.

MO r E T h AN A SCIENCE PA r K Science parks – and those who run them – play a vital role in supporting the scientists and their colleagues who are working to develop new ideas and technologies. The decisions taken by the teams running the parks directly affect the support provided to occupiers.

SBC’s example shows us that vibrant communities wrapped in supportive environments also lead to economic success. It is the support and communication that turns the park from a series of disconnected entities into an interactive ecosystem. ■

Resources

1) ‘Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst’s key role in delivering economic benefit from life sciences’ - www.stevenagecatalyst.com/ impact/economic-impact-report/

2) ‘Hertfordshire’s Cell and Gene Therapy Cluster’ - www.hertfordshirelep.com/ media/e3dhe4jc/hertfordshire-s-celland-gene-therapy-cluster-july-2021.pdf

For further information, please visit: www.stevenagecatalyst.com

Growth

Itecho health co-founders, CTO lalit Suryawanshi, and CEO Adrian Brown

Shared convictions

“I didn’t want to study via distance learning, so I went to its campus at Fontainebleau as well as studying modules in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and San Francisco.

when the history of European digital healthcare is finally written, one of its most intriguing chapters will be when Mr Med met Mr Tech in the historic French town of Fontainebleau.

Adrian Brown (Mr Med) had spent some 20 years in public healthcare, holding leadership roles for the NHS in London, after training in obstetrics and gynaecology, and then in public health.

His passion was to re-design care pathways, to improve their effectiveness and the outcomes for patients, and increase the efficiency of public healthcare systems.

Lalit Suryawanshi (Mr Tech) had spent a similar time in advanced technology, honing his skills as a software engineer in his native Mumbai, before working for major trade brands in the UK from 2004.

His time with Asda, Hermes, Howdens Joinery, QVC and Wilko had seen him design numerous innovative delivery systems based on digital tech.

Brown and Suryawanshi had also long shared a belief in the power of entrepreneurship; the catalyst for their chance conversations which led to the creation of Leeds-based Itecho Health.

“I’d always been enthused by the thought of making healthcare services better and introducing more effective and efficient delivery mechanisms. I’d also often thought I had the potential to be an entrepreneur, but at the time, the NHS wasn’t fully geared up for innovation,” recalls Brown.

“Eventually, I decided to take an Global Executive MBA at INSEAD. It was at the time ranked as the world’s leading business school and its track record spoke for itself.

“Whilst there, I began to crystallise my thoughts about my future direction and attended a ‘boot camp’ for wouldbe entrepreneurs. Everyone had to put forward an idea for a future business, and it was there that I met Lalit.

“I always describe as the day Mr Med met Mr Tech. His project was awarded first place, and mine came a close second, so we began talking, immediately got on and realised we had complementary skillsets.

“We shared a conviction that the NHS should adopt new and innovative digital platforms to better monitor and manage patients living with chronic long-term conditions -- for the betterment of everyone.

“We decided to join forces and from those initial conversations we later formed Itecho Health in April 2018. I became CEO and Lalit became CTO.”

Sharing your success, best practice, and lessons learned

Co-founder of Itecho Health, Adrian Brown, discusses the company’s origins and its growth ambitions.

h APP y TO h E l P

It’s pleasing to discover that the two colleagues are committed to helping others whilst away from their day jobs.

Suryawanshi is a parent governor at his local primary school, a member of the Morley Town Deal Board which is overseeing investment of more than £24m and heavily involved in the Morley Indian Society.

Brown’s ‘out of office’ activities have an international dimension. He used his knowledge of maternity health to establish a charity which celebrates its 20th anniversary in September, to reduce the death rates and enhance care standards for mothers and babies in low-income countries.

It’s pro-bono work and demanding, but that hasn’t diluted his commitment to Maternity Worldwide over the years.

“I co-founded the organisation because I was appalled at the needless number of deaths during pregnancy and childbirth of women in low-income countries,” says Brown.

“We’ve always been a secular charity, and our work is mainly in poor rural areas where we work with communities to improve knowledge, access to and the quality of healthcare services provided by faith-based organisations and the government.

“We’ve worked in a dozen countries so far, mainly in Africa, and are currently involved with projects in Uganda, Malawi and Ethiopia.”

Brown and Suryawanshi brought their fledgling venture to Nexus, an innovation hub based within the University of Leeds’ campus in 2019, and the former has become an unofficial ambassador for the location, given the passion with which he

“We didn’t really progress much during our first year, but since we came to this community, it’s been amazing,” he says.

“We have access to KPMG on the campus, and they’ve been brilliant. They’ll give you their initial time for free, and likewise with a law firm. Squire Patton Boggs.

“Even though Lalit and myself have degrees in our subject and MBAs from INSEAD, this quality of advice really gives you clarity about your potential evolution as a business.

“Nexus is a very collaborative community and it’s also the ideal location for us, because we work very closely with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ Trust, the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network and the city council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.”

CO r E P r ODUCT

Itecho Health’s core product is Ascelus (bottom left), a digital platform which delivers remote monitoring and management of long-term conditions using AI.

“Inevitably, as people live longer, treatment for people with such conditions takes up more and more of our healthcare spending,” says Brown.

“Costs were rising faster than budgets long before Covid, and as waiting times get ever longer, it’s clear that more efficient and productive models are required.

“Ascelus was designed to integrate with the existing NHS IT system, allowing patients to add information on their symptoms through their smartphones/devices and where relevant link to their wearables.

“Clinicians can then assess how they are doing and monitor their test results, use of drugs and other treatments with a view to reducing the need for face-to-face appointments.

“The outcomes are more convenience and easier access to information for the patient, freeing up vital time for clinicians and economic gains for the NHS.

“It also helps the NHS meet its ambitious target to achieve ‘Net Zero’ by 2040 and the reduction in CO2 from reduced visits to GPs and surgeries by patients is monitored on Ascelus.

“Other players in the digital healthcare have recently focused mainly on video-conferencing, however our

platform also incorporates algorithms so the NHS can see which patients should be prioritised, which is crucial to increase both its efficiency and its outcomes.”

Itecho Health is currently leading a collaboration which includes three NHS Foundation Trusts on a multi-million real-world implementation study, funded by a National Institute for Health and Care Research’s i4i Challenge Award.

“Rigorous analysis of real-world data is crucial to understanding the needs of patients, and we’re helping to assess the healthcare experiences of some 3,800 patients to see how clinical management and productivity can be increased,” says Brown.

The company has also partnered with the famed Francis Crick Institute as part of the KQ Labs programme, an accelerator for start-ups with high growth potential specialising in data-driven health.

“I think it helped us that during the pandemic their programme went online, and they began to look at companies based outside London, which they hadn’t previously,” says Brown.

“It was great to get involved, to meet their experts and also to receive introductions to potential investors and corporates interested in digital healthcare.

“We were also very pleased to be accepted into the oncology development programme at Alderley Park.

Itecho health co-founder and CEO Adrian Brown

“We were among 30 businesses shortlisted for the pre-development phase and one of eight in the development phase.

“It’s a national programme looking to advance start-ups whose technology will improve the treatment and diagnosis of cancer, and it certainly helped us develop Ascelus.”

r AISIN g P r O f I l E

The two founders are keen to drive their company’s growth via external capital, but to date have not been dependent on this due to being so successful at winning grant funding.

“We’ve had discussions with some VCs,but haven’t yet gone out there and really sold ourselves, although we will be looking to do so during the second half of 2022 to support our ambitions for growth”, says Brown.

“However, it’s been clear that they’re not solely interested in the NHS and the UK and would like to see us working in other markets, so in the early months of 2022, we have done detailed work to explore the markets in the US, Germany and the Netherlands.”

Itecho Health has also been profileraising through visits to international health exhibitions in Germany and Dubai, and will visit California this month. However, for the moment, its current focus is on Ukraine, its healthcare needs, patients who remain within the war-torn country and those who have sought refuge.

“We’re working with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Nexus and the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN to hopefully use our platform for patient care in Ukraine, particularly for cancers, because the war has obviously had a huge impact on their healthcare systems,” says Brown.

“We’re translating the features of Ascelus into Ukrainian and developing web access, so it will be available both within Ukraine and to refugees displaced in other countries.

“They’ll be able to download the platform, provide confidential information about the diseases or condition from which they suffer, list their symptoms and upload photos and other data.

“Doctors in the UK who are volunteering for this programme will then be able to make an initial diagnosis, and we’re hoping to then grow that beyond Leeds and Yorkshire.

“The programme has now been approved by the hospital, we’ve completed the initial tech side, brought in a project manager and plan to launch the service before June. We self-funded it in its early stages, but are now seeking investor support to allow this to be scaled up.” ■

For more information, please visit: www.itechohealth.com

Adrian stands on the site of a new maternity hospital in Malawi

Stephen George + Partners

Stephen George + Partners design spaces and places that attract the brightest minds, promote and encourage entrepreneurial culture, improve collaboration and facilitate the commercial growth and success of scientific, technical and knowledge-based businesses.

A successful science park comprises an eco-system of interconnected yet varied organisations requiring cross-sector knowledge for delivery and growth. Stephen George + Partners draws on over 50 years of cross-sector experience to contribute to every aspect of science park development: from offices to logistics, healthcare, pharmaceutical and research facilities to community infrastructure such as retail and leisure, hotels and residential, as well as transport, power, waste and data centres.

Working in partnership with local authorities, private sector businesses, educational establishments, as well as engaging with the wider community, Stephen George + Partners works across the lifecycle of buildings and estate, from business case support and preconstruction, masterplanning and consulting on the successful delivery of new and refurbished buildings and

through to the phased decarbonisation and improved environmental performance of existing buildings.

To ensure it can offer clients the best ideas, ensure future proofing and competitive advantage, Stephen George + Partners carries out its own R+D in areas ranging from smart technology, sustainability and wellness, BIM, labour and material shortages/costs, modular and offsite construction, through to current socio-economic trends.

Recognising that the science park sector has undergone dramatic change over the last decade, Stephen George + Partners supports its development partners and estates teams in the design and delivery of appropriate spaces, ensuring their most efficient use and ability to attract occupiers and highly skilled staff.

Whilst demand for R+D, life sciences and manufacturing space has grown in line with the need for commerciallyfocussed research from academic institutions, the greater application of technology and artificial intelligence, coupled with a requirement for shorter supply chains, has seen organisations think differently about the types of spaces they occupy and where they are located.

To compete on a global stage, clients are seeking affordable, flexible, sustainable space; a hybrid campus that is resilient, effective and viable. Changes in the way we choose to spend our time are presenting opportunities through town centre regeneration and the sustainable repurposing and refurbishment of buildings to create knowledge and innovation hubs. So, too, will the Government’s Levelling Up agenda see science parks and innovation districts catalysing economic growth in the regions, whilst presenting the opportunity to extend their reach and become more connective with wider residential and academic communities, feeding in talent and knowledge from local universities and teaching hospitals. ■

For further information on the projects by Stephen George + Partners, please visit: www.stephengeorge.co.uk/projects

loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park (lUSEP)

Collaborative Cancer Research

- Development and Innovation in South East Wales -

Cancer Services in South East Wales are working to attract hundreds of millions of pounds of public and private sector investment to deliver significant improvements in patient outcomes and experience. This investment will provide ‘state of the art’ infrastructure, technology and equipment. Collaborative Research, Development, Innovation and Education are key themes with partnerships and collaboration across sectors, organisations and disciplines (across South East Wales and beyond) and are central to delivering clinical, research and financial objectives.

To provide system wide leadership of this significant investment and change process, the South East Wales Collaborative Cancer Leadership Group (CCLG) has been established. Chaired by Suzanne Rankin, CEO, Cardiff & Vale UHB, CCLG membership includes Executive Directors and the Clinical

Cancer Leads from the statutory bodies responsible for delivery of cancer services: Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB, Aneurin Bevan UHB, Cardiff & Vale UHB, Powys THB and Velindre University NHS Trust. These organisations are working in partnership with key national actors including Public Health Wales, Health Education & Improvement Wales, Digital Health and Care Wales, the Wales Cancer Network, the Life Science Hub and Cancer Research Wales.

The Collaboration Partners are also active with third sector partners, industry and the Regions City Deal. A Transformation Programme Office hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust supports the Cancer Collaborative.

l ON g- TE r M APP r OAC h

To achieve a transformation in outcomes and experience for patients with cancer in South East Wales, it is essential to develop a long-term approach to whole system functioning based upon

collaboration and partnership with a programme of work that will span the breadth of the cancer pathway from prevention to treatment and living with the impact of cancer. An importance is placed on Research, Development and Innovation as key enablers of high system performance. Our Strategy sets down our Research Themes as:

• Putting patients first and at the centre of everything we do Patients will help set the research agenda and we aim to increase opportunities for patients and their families so that within 10 years most of our patients are offered research and innovation opportunities.

• Advancing new treatments, interventions and care We will lead and take part in welldesigned Clinical Trials and other research studies, providing the evidence base required to bring new, improved

©John cooper architecture reference design for new velindre Cancer Centre

treatments and interventions into the clinic to enhance patient care. New infrastructure for research delivery will be developed, including a Tripartite Cardiff Cancer Research Hub for Early Phase and Translational research delivery on the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) site and a firm footprint for research at the new Velindre Cancer Centre, particularly to enable cuttingedge radiotherapy research.

• Driving translational research through connecting the laboratory and clinic

We will work closely with our academic (university) partners to enable translational (‘bench to bedside’) research, bringing new discoveries (novel drugs, imaging techniques and/or technological advances) through from the laboratory to the clinic to benefit patients. We will also enable reverse translation (‘bedside to bench’) research where patient samples/scans and/or data are taken back to the laboratory to generate new knowledge.

• Embedding research and innovation within the organisational culture

We will establish an organisational culture that values research and build capacity and capability.

The Collaborative Research, Development and Innovation Portfolio include:

• Strategic Radiotherapy Research Partnership

• Dedicated Radiotherapy Research Bunker

• Research Hub at UHW

• Collaborative Centre for Learning and Innovation at Velindre Cancer Centre

• Prehabilitation to Rehabilitation Pathway

• Sustainable Healthcare

• City Deal Opportunities

The Cancer Collaborative is able to offer research opportunities across a whole region, spanning the whole pathway of cancer care, alongside a multi-disciplinary approach and a broad eco system of partners with which to build value.

The Collaborative are seeking to:

• Partner and collaborate with industry, investors and research organisations

across the healthcare/technology/ science industry.

• Build long term relations that build mutually beneficial value for partners

• To share and benefit from good practice across the UK and internationally

• Access other networks to seek wider collaborations and to assist others. ■

The Cancer Collaborative offers physical and virtual collaboration opportunities across a range of specialist academic, tertiary, secondary, community and primary care services and infrastructure across the whole cancer pathway with strong links to academia. The potential for value creation is significant.

Potential enquiries can be sent to: Velindre.innovation@wales.nhs.uk

“T HE C ANCER C OLLABORATI v E IS ABLE TO OFFER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS A w HOLE RE g ION , SPANNIN g THE w HOLE PATH w A y OF CANCER CARE , ALON g SIDE A m ULTI DISCIPLINAR y APPROACH AND A BROAD ECO S y STE m OF PARTNERS w ITH w HICH TO BUILD v ALUE .”

reference design for new velindre Cancer Centre

Aformer MSD research facility this 20-acre biotech incubator for Scotland is located in-between Glasgow and Edinburgh on the M8. The site has strong strengths in pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics research with access on-site to a

MediCity, Nottingham

Situated within a Grade 1 listed Art Deco building, MediCity Nottingham has been stripped back to reveal its original glory of sleek ziggurat ceiling, pastel green tiles and bold geometric motifs.

Based within Boots UK’s headquarters, companies based on-site can showcase their products and services to leaders and decision-makers within Boots. The companies at the MedTech incubator benefit from being based within the Enterprise Zone, enjoying (in most instances) full exemption on business rates.

For startups, they try to make life as straightforward as possible. Scale up your space without the risk of lengthy leases. Take on new labs with just one month’s notice with the option to scale back with only three months’ notice. The flexible and modular lab space is perfect for life science startups and scaleups.

compound management library and MHRA licensed controlled conditions and cryostorage.

Nestled in amongst landscaped gardens, and mature trees. Companies based here enjoy a break from work in ‘Nowhere’, a stylish coffeehouse co-working space with

BioCity, Glasgow

air hockey, a pool table, a gym, cosy lounge spaces and patio garden.

Life science start-ups based here make use of the ample car parking, 24/7 pharma-grade site security provision, easy access to the M8, two airports and two local train stations only a short distance away.

The site is designed to support companies looking to commercialise opportunities in Life Science, MedTech, Digital Health, Healthcare and wellness. BioCity Glasgow was built to an exceptionally high specification, with tailored bench space, extra-large laboratories and grow on space for companies at all stages. ■

For further information, please visit: www.wearepioneergroup.com

As a MedTech incubator, they know that the ventures that call MediCity Nottingham have specialist requirements, and so work together to create tailormade spaces. From minor alterations to custom fit-outs, we have seen it all. So, if the space is right, but the contents aren’t, we work together to get it spot-on.

MediCity Nottingham enjoys close connections between MediCity

Nottingham and regional partners like Medilink, East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, Ingenuity Gateway and Invest in Nottingham, ensuring companies always know about valuable local opportunities. ■

For further information, please visit: www.wearepioneergroup.com

Cardiff Edge

Five miles north of Cardiff city centre, nestled within a Nature Reserve on the River Taff, is Cardiff Edge, an 11-hectare landscaped Life Sciences R&D site providing serviced lab space in Cardiff.

Recently having undergone a £1.5m refurbishment, Cardiff Edge reflects South Wales’ ambition to create an exemplary life sciences ecosystem, connecting business, academia and the public sector at a single location.

Companies on-site include Cytiva (formerly GE Healthcare) and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

The South Wales Life Science cluster is fast growing. Locally there are three universities, two hospitals, £180m Velindre Cancer Care Hospital, Life Science Hub Wales, the Wales Life Science Investment Fund, Life Science Bridging Fund and the Life Science National Research Network.

The cluster effect of We are Pioneer Group attracts the kind of advantages and opportunities not typically available to startups. Invitation-only pitching competitions, investment showcases, unique collaborations and trade visits are regular features for We are Pioneer Group based businesses.

More than just serviced labs, We are Pioneer Group create ecosystems in which science entrepreneurs can learn from the best and connect with the community. ■

For further information, please visit: www.wearepioneergroup.com

Powering the West Midlands’ innovation journey

joanna Birch is used to a challenge. In the past, she has donned her running shoes in order to take part in the Great Birmingham Run half-marathon, raising money for Ovarian Cancer. This year, those feet have been put through the wringer once more, with Joanna braving a fire and ice walk for Acorn Children’s Hospice and LoveBrum.

It is fair to say, then, that when it came to addressing the challenge of helping businesses to innovate successfully, Joanna – in her role as Director of Birmingham City University (BCU)’s Innovation, Enterprise and Employability directorate – has approached the situation with the same relish and determination.

Once more, it’s a case of taking it one step at a time. However, this is no

ordinary challenge. The recent UK Innovation Strategy outlined that while many UK businesses are at the cutting edge of technology, too few feel confident in developing new products, services and processes that can be facilitated through innovation.

With the Covid-19 pandemic radically altering the conditions for doing business, there is a greater need for businesses to understand how to innovate successfully in order to remain competitive.

“The conditions for doing business have changed,” Joanna explains, when asked about the challenges today’s organisations are facing. “Many businesses are trying to work out how to pivot in order to adapt. The problems to solve are getting more complicated, requiring multiple disciplines, insights and solutions.”

Joanna believes that innovation is about creating a viable new offering. The key, she says, is to understand some of the core skills to ensure that a new offering is developed in a timely, affordable way, delivered to a market that will appreciate it.

“The quicker an idea can be contextualised by user needs, and developed, tested and implemented, the less investment and cost required,” she says.

COMMUNITIES TO g ET h E r

In her work travelling across Europe and America, Joanna has seen that innovation happens best when the ecosystem joins up, with tailored spaces that join communities together, “supported by programmes that skill up, support and assist during early stages of idea formulation and launch,

Birmingham City University’s j oanna Birch talks about the institution’s innovation journey, the successes so far and the challenges that lie ahead.

and then ensure that the business has the financial support and investment coupled with business support to help them grow thereafter.”

The West Midlands is taking vital steps to meet this, namely with the development of Birmingham’s Knowledge Quarter, which reaches from the Bruntwood SciTech iCentrum building across to Digbeth. It comprises of a number of institutions, such as BCU, Aston University, Birmingham Metropolitan College and Aston Engineering Academy.

“We are working with this community, the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham City Council, the Growth Hub and amazing social enterprises like free@last to see how we can create a vibrant, connected network,” Joanna explains.

“We can then utilise the amazing knowhow, investment and skills to drive business forward. The programme has a little way to go, but with investment happening across the space, we believe the Knowledge Quarter will ensure we maximise on the infrastructure available to create a vibrant growth ecosystem.”

CO ll ABO r ATI v E INNO v ATION

In 2018, BCU opened its pilot STEAMhouse project in the distinctive Birmingham region of Digbeth.

As the University’s centre for collaborative innovation, the project enabled the team to test, review and understand how to build a bigger project to meet long-term innovation needs.

The government-backed STEAM agenda has:

• Underpinned new interdisciplinary and collaborative research partnerships;

• Driven open innovation with regional and national businesses and entrepreneurs;

• Facilitated considerable levels of public and community engagement through access to facilities and workshops;

• Made a substantial contribution to local growth and regeneration.

STEAMhouse provides businesses with access to state-of-the-art facilities,

packages of business support and access to likeminded collaborators from the business, academic, creative and digital communities.

Since opening the pilot site, it has supported the creation of 63 new businesses in the West Midlands (and beyond), helping to create 75 new product ideas.

Joanna is particularly proud of how STEAMhouse and BCU’s STEAM agenda has shaken conventions and made innovation in business accessible.

“To be truly successful, a business ecosystem has to transcend individual organisations to work seamlessly for the benefit of the businesses, individual and organisations that engage,” she says.

“Our STEAM-based innovation looks to see how we can create spaces to support radical openness. This goes beyond an organisation, discipline or hierarchy to recognise the potential of everybody in the room, defining new ways to move forward.”

D r I v IN g f O r T h E f UTU r E

BCU’s innovation offering is set to expand further this year with the opening of a new STEAMhouse innovation campus, a five-storey building that will “drive innovation and bring together practitioners, creatives and businesses from different walks of life in order to think differently, do better and achieve more.”

This new development represents eight years of stringent planning, and includes an exciting, all-encompassing offering as well as a new facility.

“The development process hasn’t just been about designing spaces which facilitate collaboration,” Joanna explains. “It has also been about designing new toolkits, methods and processes, creating

a new curriculum, building new communities of practice, and trailing and testing interventions which deliver the right results.”

Furthermore, BCU has also recently received accreditation from the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (IKE), who work with some of the UK’s leading innovative organisations. It means BCU is the only institution in the West Midlands, and only the second in the country, to receive such an accreditation.

BCU will now be offering the IKE Innovation Practice Certificate, a certified innovation programme that will allow them to train up individualswhether they be students, practitioners and businesses - to build their innovation knowledge.

“The IKE Certificate is all about providing a range of tools, guidance and ways of working that will support a business to take on the skills and ensure they can innovate independently by embedding it into their everyday business practice,” Joanna explains.

Joanna believes the University’s STEAM offering and IKE accreditation will help businesses and new startups get off the starting blocks, enabling them to achieve long-term support and growth.

“We think these are really important shifts in support in order to build the innovative capacity of our businesses, and bridge gaps known to exist within the current innovation ecosystem.”

With such exciting developments in place, this looks set to be Joanna’s most rewarding challenge yet. ■

For further information on STEAMhouse, please visit: https://steamhouse.org.uk/

At c.100,000 sq ft, the STEAMhouse building boasts five storeys of state-of-the-art facilities delivering office space and business support activities

Impact

Seeds of success

To hear of a breakthrough which will make a tangible difference to the environment, benefit both consumers and farmers, and make year-round supplies for the High Street supermarkets more efficient, feels almost science-fiction.

However, as the genial CEO of Loughborough-based Zayndu explains the technology which underpins this spin-out venture, it’s immediately clear that its huge potential is based on solid fact.

At its simplest, the company uses plasma technology to harness the power of lightning to break up air into its constituent molecules of oxygen and nitrogen. The resultant ‘activated air’ acts as a powerful disinfectant to kill bacteria and fungi on seeds, but without the need for toxic chemicals or pesticides.

The treatment is completely dry, so growers don’t require vast amounts of water to decontaminate their seeds, and their power bills are dramatically reduced because there’s no need to heat the water to the 50 degC typically used by current ‘hot dip’ techniques.

Unlike the ‘breakthroughs’ of sciencefiction though, Zayndu’s achievements are the result of years of dedicated research and meticulous testing, and not a single ‘Eureka’ moment, as Weir explains.

“Dr Felipe Iza, who founded the company in 2019, is a specialist in electronics. He realised quite early on during his research at Loughborough

University that plasma technology had multiple uses, and one of them was to kill bugs.

“He later thought it would be interesting to see if plasma could kill pathogens on seeds, because unlike chemicals, the technique would be environmentally friendly.

“Felipe chose parsnip seeds for his trials, and plasma technology killed a

pathogen which was a challenge for chemicals to remove, so by itself that was a significant success. However, although it was exciting for scientists, it was still also rather academic and high-brow.

“Other academics had tried similar approaches, and for a while, the research stagnated because the temperatures required to create plasma were so high that they killed the bugs - but also cooked the seed.”

Zayndu CEO Ralph w eir explains to Ian Halstead how its innovative plasma-based technology can revolutionise the global food-growing sector.

photo credit: annie Johnston

Taking care of your people, places and public perception

Seeds incubated after treatment

Fortunately, Dr Iza persevered and was able to refine his technique so it could be applied at significantly lower temperatures, leading to the current system, which treats seeds with plasma at room temperature and at normal atmospheric pressure.

Three years ago, he successfully applied to Innovate UK for grant funding through its Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme – set up to back projects with commercial potential – and then spun Zayndu out of the university.

Weir, who specialises in working with early-stage ventures which have pioneered breakthrough technologies, was then brought in to grow the commercial side of the business and oversee the evolution of operational prototypes.

“Understandably, the Zayndu model was very appealing. Felipe’s technology could help agricultural growers and seed producers increase their yield at low cost, and without the need for pesticides,” says Weir.

“It was also very timely, because many countries were taking action to ban the use of toxins in food production. Until recently, it was accepted that chemicals were needed to ‘clean’ seeds but now the impact on the environment is more widely understood.

“Zayndu’s techniques are also both natural and sustainable, which again chimes with the current mindset with regard to future-proofing in the agri-tech industry.”

In March, the company won the ‘Best Pivot Award’ from ICURe, underlining its successful migration from a plasma tech research business to one focused on vertical farming and agriculture.

NE w SO l UTIONS

Bringing non-traditional players like Zayndu into the agri-tech ecosystem is vital to provide new solutions to challenges faced by the industry, according to Agri-TechE director Dr Belinda Clarke.

Her organisation, an independent business-focused membership group, brings together farmers, producers, technologists and entrepreneurs looking to increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture.

“Perhaps our greatest strength is to offer opportunities for informal networking, which brings people from different sectors into contact with others which they might otherwise not have met, creating opportunities for synergies and collaborations,” says Clarke.

“Increasingly, we see non-traditional

players bringing forward new ideas which will increase food production, but also lower the environmental impact of the production process.

“Cold plasma agricultural techniques use physics to replace the use of fossil fuels for fertiliser, and in the example of Zayndu, remove the need for chemicals and water for seed cleaning.

“It was very pleasing that Ralph and his team chose one of our events earlier this year to launch their first product, Aurora Z10, the world’s first ‘activated air’ seed sterilisation system.

Zayndu also partners with Vertical Future, a London-headquartered farming technology and research company which believes passionately in vertical farming to both reduce food-related inequalities and make populations healthier.

Dr Belinda Clarke, director, Agri-TechE

“ Z A y NDU ’ S TECHNI q UES ARE BOTH NATURAL AND SUSTAINABLE , w HICH CHI m ES w ITH THE CURRENT m INDSET w ITH RE g ARD TO FUTURE PROOFIN g IN THE A g RI TECH INDUSTR y. ” RALPH w EIR , CEO , ZA y NDU

zayndu - untreated vs treated seeds

“They are very interested in collaborations, and our technology is particularly important for the concept of vertical farming,” says Weir.

“You have a very controlled environment, heating, ventilation and suchlike, and no birds, of course, so the farm inside should be absolutely clean and free from pathogens. If it is, then the bugs can only have come from the seeds or the people.

“We are now working with several companies who create and operate vertical farms and looking to further build our profile by attending events and exhibitions.

“We attended the Global Vertical Farming Expo in December 2021 for instance and were just mobbed by people who operated vertical farms and commercial greenhouses.”

Zayndu is also raising its profile on social media, and the third core element of its growth strategy is to identify the world’s largest vertical farmers and approach them directly.

“There are multiple drivers for the concept. One is the idea of being able to grow fabulous produce in dense urban areas - and even in city centres,” says Weir.

“It’s laudable, but would only work currently if you were growing very high-value produce and were next door to a Michelin star restaurant.

“However, it gets very interesting if you build a vertical farm at a logistics hub and use it to grow stuff for supermarkets. Not particularly the fancy stuff, but maybe those items for bagged salads which are in high demand but can’t currently be grown all year-round in this country.

“You could reduce food miles, help make countries a little more selfsufficient. We can, for instance, easily grow basil, coriander and other herbs we enjoy in vertical farms.”

v E r TICA l f A r MIN g

The concept of vertical farming is well suited to fast-growing items, and Ocado was one of the first corporates to invest significantly in the fledgling sector.

Back in 2019, Ocado created a three-way jv with US-based vertical farm specialist 80 Acres and Priva, a

Dutch company which designs climate control technology, and also took a stake in Scunthorpe-based Jones Food Company (JFC).

JFC now operates one of Europe’s largest vertical farms, with a combined growing capacity of 1,200 tonnes pa, and supplies 3,000 kilogrammes of fresh herbs a week to UK supermarkets.

Last October, JFC raised another £25m of funding, including another £5m from Ocado; Vertical Future raised £21m in Q1 2022, and Grow-Up is now investing around £100m to build its fourth farm.

“When you see investment on such a scale, you realise the huge potential of vertical farming,” says Weir.

Zayndu’s plasma technology also dovetails perfectly with the niche demand for ‘heritage seeds’, which have excellent taste but are not grown commercially as they are vulnerable to pests and diseases.

Some of the older varieties haven’t grown produce for decades. Weir and his colleagues realised the potential when they became involved with NIAB, formerly the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.

NIAB was founded as a charitable trust right after World War One, to identify ways to improve existing seeds, plants and crops in the UK, and also to investigate and promote new treatments, innovations and processes which could benefit the agricultural industry.

“I gave a presentation, the national director of NIAB happened to be in the audience, and we later met up, along with Vertical Future,” recalls Weir.

“If heritage seed could be grown commercially in vertical farms, then the disease risk would be removed. We began trials to see if our cold-plasma technology could bring one of the country’s so-called heirloom crops back to productive life.

“We are collaborating on a project to clean seeds of Viroflay spinach, but which was eaten in the 1600s, and the early results are very promising.

“In recent times, seed-growers have optimised for resistance to disease, but we’ve heard from vertical farmers who started using heritage seeds and the results have been phenomenal. Greater yield and a much better taste.

“The Viroflay seeds came from a specialist seed society, so it will be really interesting to discover what other long-forgotten crops might be out there.”

It’s been an intriguing discussion, but still one slight puzzle remains … the origin of the company’s name.

Zayndu is certainly catchy as a brand, and has an exotic ring, so might it come from Far Eastern culture, the world of myth or even Bollywood? The explanation is rather more prosaic.

“Felipe comes from the Basque area of Spain, and it’s a local word which means to like or care for.” explains Weir. ■

For further information on Zayndu, please visit: https://zayndu.com

I

jones food Company (jfC) operates one of Europe’s largest vertical farms

images: Vertical Farm daily

The path to the most sustainable labs is through adaptive reuse, but proceed cautiously

This latest installment from I 2 SL highlights the sustainability benefits of adaptive reuse and explains why careful planning is needed to ensure that these projects are successful.

The increasing demand for science space, the current vacancy of non-lab space, and the goal of sustainable facilities are all driving interest in adaptive reuse for science in the US’s life-science hotspots.

Th E B I g P I v OT

The Opportunity: Rising office vacancy rates, coupled with unprecedented growth in demand for laboratory space1, is driving building owners and developers alike to convert existing non-lab space into facilities for research and development. Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, and other core US life science markets have the favorable combination of strong demand, limited supply of buildings and vacant sites, lengthy development review periods, and robust regional economies fueled by ample equity capital from many sources2. In the US’s six largest life science markets, office-to-lab conversions currently account for more than 20% of new lab space.

Location, Schedule, and Cost Advantage: The urgency for an organization to start their research in a new facility, combined with the schedule benefit of starting with an existing structure, is a clear advantage for adaptive reuse. Renovating also often eliminates the need for lengthy environmental, regulatory, planning, and zoning approvals that can add months to a project schedule. The reduction in use of materials, combined with shorter project durations, results in reduced costs for

design and construction. Also, existing facilities are more likely to be located within a prime scientific community.

Reducing Carbon Footprint: With operational emissions from buildings accounting for 28% of all global carbon emissions, and embodied emissions generating a further 11%, pressure is growing on building owners, operators, and occupants to reduce their carbon footprint3. Conversion preserves the carbon that is embodied in an existing

david bendet, aia, leed bd+c cbre, director, liFe scieNces – saN FraNcisco presideNt, i2sl NortherN caliForNia chapter

Ken Wilke cbre, director, liFe scieNces saN dieGo

alison Farmer secretary oF the board, i2sl

building’s structure, and less energy and fewer carbon-intensive building materials are needed than in new construction. Because material usage is lower, the environmental footprint for manufacturing, transportation, and installation is also reduced.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance): 2020 was a watershed year for ESG investing in real estate, as pandemic and climate-related disruption, along with growing recognition of social inequity, prompted investors to adopt a more robust approach to sustainable facilities. 60% of respondents to CBRE’s 2021 Global Investor Intention Survey stated that they have already adopted ESG as part of their investment strategies4

Energy Independence: The conflict in Ukraine has reminded the world that energy independence and use of renewable sources will be a more successful path to a sustainable future.

w hy Science b uilding S are d ifferent Safety is Priority: In addition to supporting the extensive and highly sensitive analytical processes used in science, building systems must be designed to protect the health and safety of the occupants from the chemical and biological materials used, adding complexity to the process of adapting existing facilities for science.

Design for Science: Each scientific program, from basic biology to bioinformatics, from physical science to cGMP manufacturing, requires a specific response to modifying existing infrastructure to support the science. While there are many unique architectural and engineering requirements depending on the precise laboratory use, there are also a number of common design factors for science which all must be considered when evaluating the conversion of an existing building. These include code and hazardous materials compliance, structural requirements of roof and floors, and sizing of mechanical and electrical systems5. Considerations may also include provision of standby generators, upgraded fire protection systems, additional loading docks, and separate service elevators for hazardous materials.

exact sciences’ new 45,000 square-foot research facility in san diego (left & above) is an excellent example of using innovative design and construction approaches to overcome the challenges faced when converting an office building to laboratory use. the existing facility had very limited floor-to-floor height and most of the Mep systems required full replacement, all under a very compressed timeline. despite this, the project team was able to provide a functional, flexible, and attractive lab environment that will serve exact’s research team for many years and be a magnet for recruiting new talent.

Further, existing floor-to-floor heights may pose challenges for accommodation of the deeper plenums often needed for laboratory distribution systems.

Programmatic Flexibility: As science programs change over time, the most sustainable design strategy is that which provides the highest degree of flexibility for future adaptation.

f acilitie S aSS e SS ment

The motivation for adaptive reuse is strong, but taking the time to carefully establish feasibility and scope is crucial. Every existing building and every organization is unique, and there is no one-size-fits all set of instructions to convert existing buildings to science. Not all existing buildings are a good fit.

Establish the Scope of Renovation:

A detailed Facilities Assessment of the existing building, combined with a comprehensive Basis of Design for the programmatic space, indoor environmental conditions, and equipment needs will establish a Gap Analysis along with a Set of Requirements to be achieved in order for the facility to support the new science use.

S ummary

Adaptive reuse for science facilities has clear advantages in providing laboratory space with the quickest occupancy, best location, lowest cost, and best sustainability performance. In order to achieve these goals, it’s crucial to assemble a team that’s experienced with

assessment of existing facilities and development of performance requirements, and ready to take an innovative design and engineering approach. ■

Resources

1) U.S. Life Sciences Trends 2021 - The “Century of Biology” lifts off. CBRE. https://www.cbre.com/en/insights/figures/ us-life-sciences-trends-2021

2) New Uses for Old Buildings. NAIOP. https://www.naiop.org/en/Research-andPublications/Reports/New-Uses-forOffice-Buildings

3) World Green Building Council, Global Status Report 2017. https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/ global-status-report-2017

4) ESG and Real Estate: The Top 10 Things Investors Need to Know. CBRE. https:// www.cbre.com/insights/reports/esg-andreal-estate-the-top-10-things-investorsneed-to-know#introduction

5) The Big Pivot to Science Facilities. David Bendet for Tradeline. https://www.tradelineinc.com/ reports/2020-12/big-pivot-science-facilities

For further information on I2SL, please visit: www.i2sl.org

For more on CBRE’s Life Sciences sector, please visit: www.cbre.com/en/services/ property-types/life-sciences

Project team: cbre, healthpeak Properties, Pma, fPba, align builders Photos: haley hill Photography

q uantitative and qualitative analysis of the innovation ecosystemTrends

Med-tech motivations

Long before Covid reached our shores, the med-tech sector was already in the throes of radical transformation because of political, demographic and societal influences.

The government was maintaining its relentless squeeze on NHS funding, an ageing population with greater life expectancy than previous generations was increasingly suffering from chronic and lifestyle-related diseases.

At the same time, consumers were taking more control over their healthcare leading to a boom in demand for home diagnostics, apps, wearables and other devices.

The remarkable med-tech achievements of the last two years accentuated those trends and were also the catalyst for an upsurge of interest from locations hoping to attract tenants and from VC funds looking to take a stake in the sector.

“Medtronic’s CEO and president, Geoff Martha, calculated that the pandemic had increased the pace of take-up of digital tools by seven years,” says Townsend, a member of Knight Frank’s life sciences and innovation team, and who leads its research operations.

Her diligent accumulation of data and detail, allied to her evident passion for med-tech, made her one of the rising

stars in the UK’s advisory sector during Covid, and it’s a position she shows no sign of relinquishing.

“The first thing to realise if you’re new to the opportunities within the sector is that med-tech itself is an umbrella term and there are so many sub-sectors, which will have very different real estate requirements and also be looking for different locations,” says Townsend.

“All the sectors operate via clusters though, so whether you’re an established science park wishing to increase your med-tech presence, or an evolving

Knight Frank partner j ennifer Townsend identifies the dynamics driving the UK’s med-tech sector and the latest market trends.

innovation district planning to deliver space for med-tech tenants, understanding how they like to cluster is crucial.

“You also need to appreciate the wider strengths of your area. For example, Cardiff is particularly strong in diagnostics, Yorkshire and the Humber are very strong in digital health, Bristol has significant expertise in robotics and the Midlands has strengths in data-driven healthcare.

“Within the broad eco-system, whether you are in med-tech, biopharma or in another niche, you also need access to collaborative partners, academia, finance, research institutions and NHS trusts.

“However, you still have to do much more than simply put a sign outside your science park saying ‘Welcome to

life sciences’. You need to create and curate your cluster, and you need significant investment.”

SPECTACU l A r EXAMP l E

The most spectacular example of the private sector driving the growth of major strategic clusters and eco-systems comes from the US, as might be expected.

“Alexandria recognised very early in the 21st century that clusters were the future for life sciences, agri-tech and technology, and invested very heavily in start-ups in Mission Bay in San Francisco, New York City and Cambridge,” says Townsend.

“They created their own pipeline of talent - and future tenants - in those locations. Inevitably, some failed, but the ones that succeeded grew and also helped attract others in their target sectors.

“Those three clusters became hugely successful, but it took a combination of astute strategy, sector research and massive investment to bring them forward. It also took time.

“It’s a different order of scale here, although when I look at Bruntwood SciTech, they have academia and the NHS in play, they’re delivering the real estate, creating the eco-system and bringing everyone together.

“They’re doing tremendous things at Alderley Park under their director of life sciences Kath Mackay, and it’s certainly also worth keeping an eye on the evolution of their Birmingham Health Innovation Campus.”

In the UK, the public sector led the creation of the early wave of clusters, and

the government is now a major driver of the med-tech sector.

Digital innovation has been a central element of the NHS’s long-term plan since 2019, and its adoption and integration of digital technology increased significantly during Covid. In March, the government also announced £200m funding to enhance digital capabilities within clinical trial services.

Townsend uses government data to highlight where med-tech clusters exist, and the scale of employment opportunities they have created.

“In 2020, the South-East had 31,800 people working in med-tech, the North-West had 13,800, Yorkshire and the Humber was just slightly behind them, the East of England had 13,000 and there were another 11,800 in London,” she says.

However, as international interest in the sector, particularly from the US, increased dramatically during the pandemic, so did funding from major venture capital (VC) funds.

“During 2021, VC investment into UK-headquartered companies reached £2.7 billion, up 70% on the previous year. Babylon Health, CMR Surgical, Huma and Oxford Nanopore were among the players who received significant funding,” says Townsend.

“It’s an indication of just how well the UK med-tech sector is regarded, that it was the world’s third most successful location for VC funding in 2021, behind only the UK and China.”

She identifies the leading niches attracting the most funding during the

Birmingham’s health Innovation Campus is part of Bruntwood SciTech’s burgeoning ecosystem

“A LL THE SECTORS OPERATE v IA CLUSTERS , SO w HETHER y OU ’ RE AN ESTABLISHED SCIENCE PARK w ISHIN g TO INCREASE y OUR m ED TECH PRESENCE , OR AN E v OL v IN g INNO v ATION DISTRICT PLANNIN g TO DELI v ER SPACE FOR m ED TECH TENANTS , UNDERSTANDIN g HO w THE y LIKE TO CLUSTER IS CRUCIAL .”

last five years as healthcare technology systems, surgical devices and diagnostics equipment.

Outside the traditional OxfordCambridge-London corridors, the top five locations where such deals happened were Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bristol and Cardiff.

Townsend’s assiduous search for data even took her to the records of the European Patent Office.

“During 2020, which is the last year for which these figures are available, there were 436 med-tech patent applications from the UK, and they came second only to those from the computer technology sector,” she says.

“As a Deloitte research paper from 2020 pointed out, we have an ageing population with (in general) a reasonably high living standard, and as life expectancy increases, so does demand for med-tech products.

“The adoption of consumer technologies continues to grow, and there’s no reason to think it will slow as the use of telemedicine, at-home diagnostics, digital therapeutics and wearables to track and monitor health becomes ever more popular.

“It’s an attractive niche for companies and investors because the time to undergo trials and reach the market is typically quicker for med-tech products as opposed to pharma or biotech ones, as is the R&D time.

“The cost of bringing them to market is also less than pharma or biotech, because the regulations covering their use is less stringent.”

Another significant trend is the decision of the giant tech corporations to deploy their assets, particularly the use of A1 and innovative apps, into the sector.

“There’s been a definite shift in mindset here because UK med-tech companies are increasingly partnering with tech companies, rather than seeing them as competitors,” says Townsend.

“For instance, Medtronic teamed up with IBM Watson, Qualcomm and Glooko, although equally, companies can’t afford to become complacent about the potential threat from the tech giants.

“There’s a great quote from Johnson & Johnson CEO’s Alex Gorsky, which sums up their challenge very well. ‘We should all be acting like Amazon is getting into our business, because frankly, we have to create a crisis to think about how to be more effective and efficient.’”

CU lTU r E C h AN g E S

Townsend thinks many med-tech players will have to undergo organisational restructuring, change their culture and also adapt how they recruit and retain new talent.

The latter issue is a challenge across multiple business sectors, as underlined by the Q1 data from the Office of National Statistics which showed vacancies continuing to trend upward.

“When you’re considering access to talent, there are increasingly issues around the price of such talent in different locations,” says Townsend.

“Oxford and Cambridge, for instance, were always expensive areas in which to live, even before the recent rises in housing costs, record inflation and energy bills.

“If you’re looking to recruit tech talent, you might have to relocate somewhere where that talent is or offer

people very good packages to tempt them to move to you.

“The current generation focuses on such personal issues as flexible working, health and well-being, and also ESG, because talent increasingly wants to work for companies with a strong sense of purpose.

“CMR Surgical are an exemplar of this mindset. Not only do they have a purpose-driven mission statement of ‘Transforming surgery. For good’, but their headquarters in Cambridge has been designed to maximise the health and well-being of employees - as well as enable agile working.”

Perhaps the most powerful long-term market dynamic is the remorseless shift from a product-centric mindset to a customer-centric one.

“Future value will come from data and analytics, giving companies the ability to prove the value of their products to cost-conscious customers, and also to provide services and expertise which complements and enhance their product offerings,” says Townsend.

“Deloitte quizzed almost 240 med-tech companies about their medium-term expectations about the ratio of connected medical devices in their portfolios, and the consensus was for a 20% rise to almost 70% over the next five years.

“Many med-tech companies will have to rethink their business models to reflect the importance of data and analytics, and put themselves at the centre of the healthcare ecosystem by creating platform models allowing data and results to be shared easily.

“Purchasing power is also shifting from individual physicians to procurement teams, who will want greater proof of value before purchase, which will require greater after-sales support, and a stronger focus on office-based sales and client management teams.”. ■

For further information, please visit: www.knightfrank.co.uk

CMr Surgical’s headquarters is designed to maximise health and well-being of employees

CMr Surgical’s new 55,000 sq ft global hQ was opened in Cambridge in 2019

SETTING THE STANDARD

Decontamination & validation services

Take

Eyes on Kadans

There’s been so much chatter in recent years from pundits, politicians and property folk about London’s dearth of new commercial space that it came to rank below the weather as a topic of interest.

At least it did until April, when Kadans Science Partner unveiled a jv with the Canary Wharf Group (CWG) to deliver a £500m skyscraper with 750,000 sq ft of lab and office space dedicated to life sciences.

The 22-storey building – expected to complete during 2026 - will house start-ups, researchers, academics, clinicians and Big Pharma companies, and also become the cornerstone for a new 3.3-hectare healthcare zone on the Wharf’s North Quay.

As a statement of ambition by Kadans, and as a future eco-system of global scale for life sciences and wet lab research, the news understandably captured international headlines.

For Sheppard, who had been analysing the concept’s potential for some 18 months, it was a moment to savour deeply … but also just the latest step on a long journey.

“We decided that the time was right, following our acquisition by AXA IM Real Assets, to deliver a statement building, which we hope will crystallise the country’s ambitions for life sciences, and also provide something a little bit different,” he says.

“Kadans has changed a lot since we were acquired in terms of funding, resources and ambition, and the scale of the UK’s life sciences sector has also grown and matured.

Kadans Science Partner’s j ames Sheppard outlines its plans to build Europe’s largest commercial lab space at Canary w harf.

“A building of this scale wouldn’t have been possible even a few years ago, but the market dynamics have changed considerably and we’re very confident we can build something of this size and that we can fill it.”

As Sheppard outlines the business case for the project, his depth of commitment to the cause is evident.

“I am very emotionally invested in this project … perhaps more than I should be. It was something I’d been discussing with my peers at CWG for a long time before joining Kadans,” he admits.

INTE r NATIONA l l OCATION

As you’d expect from someone with a background in science, Sheppard has certainly assembled an impressive array of data and facts to underpin his rationale.

“The connectivity is outstanding. From an international perspective, you can land at Heathrow, jump onto Crossrail and be at our building in just 34 minutes - and without ever going outside,” he says. “By itself that opens this cluster up to the Eastern coast of the US in a way which no

Airport is just 17 minutes away, you start to see how this could become an international location in a way in which others aren’t. King’s Cross isn’t. White City isn’t. Both are uniquely painful international airport. “Then there are the technical aspects. designed and fitted-out for that purpose.

converted office block and will be built from the ground up for life sciences, with a level of service which very few buildings can match.

“The third key

This area of London (Tower Hamlets) is the fastest growing

borough in the UK. It’s still genuinely affordable, and where a lot of the young scientists choose to live, so there’s a very interesting dynamic.

“Canary Wharf is also well positioned for the academics and clinical institutions we believe will be eager to take space here.

“We’ll be having discussions with a whole host of people and organisations to establish the narrative, and connectivity, specialist expertise and talent will be at the heart of our case.

“We’re very conscious that we’re coming from a low base. There is a nascent cluster here in science, but I don’t think we’ll get significant academic funding in the way (for instance) Harwell did, so we have to try to build the cluster in a different way.

“We’ll look to bring in early-stage and start-up businesses by making them realise this is the place to do science.”

A project of such scale would attract interest from many potential developers, and Sheppard is happy to discuss why CWG was selected as Kadans’ partner.

“We spent a lot of time talking to people across London, from household names to one-building owners, but kept coming back to Canary,” he recalls.

“You couldn’t hope to build a three-storey building offering 750,000 sq ft of space anywhere in London, so you have to go up - and therefore you need architects and developers with experience of designing and building such space.

“CWG are exceptionally good at building tall buildings, and have an unrivalled track record for delivering space at this size and scale in London, which we don’t.

“However, what we do have is very deep technical knowledge about delivering lab space, and I believe our skillsets complement each other very nicely.”

PUS h ED IN A NE w DI r ECTION

The reputation of the UK’s banking sector has taken multiple hits over the last decade, most recently around the City’s previous willingness to launder assets for Russian oligarchs, but Sheppard believes

“T HIS w ILL BE A LABORATOR y BUILDIN g AT ITS HEART , CONCEI v ED , DESI g NED AND FITTED OUT FOR THAT PURPOSE BUILT FRO m THE g ROUND UP FOR LIFE SCIENCES , w ITH A LE v EL OF SER v ICE w HICH v ER y FE w BUILDIN g S CAN m ATCH .”

Interior of Accelerator, a multi-tenant Kadans building for the life Sciences at Utrecht Science Park, Netherlands

that the life sciences’ project will allow the area to reinvent itself.

“Admittedly, Canary Wharf isn’t seen as a particularly cool place to be at the moment because of the nature of the banking industry in recent years, but as a location, it offers a great deal,” he says.

“It has over 300 restaurants, shops and bars on its doorstep, a very strong housing offer (with multiple different models) and I think it’s ready to be pushed in a different direction.

“Over the next six to eight months, we will roll out a plan to make the case for the campus and attract interest from future tenants. It will effectively be a campus under one roof, with scientists, researchers and academics co-locating, and a huge element of that will involve the public sector.

“We are absolutely not trying to build a huge temple to private sector investment. We want the public sector to come with us on this journey, and certainly hope that UK Research and Innovation will support us, as one of the country’s largest funding institutions. We have already started conversations with CWG about how we can involve the public sector in various ways.”

Sheppard is equally persuasive when asked to consider how the giant cluster might impact on other centres with expertise in life sciences outside London.

“I think it will fit in with the ‘levelling-up’ agenda given the existing clusters of biotech and life sciences in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and other regional locations,” he says.

“Our project won’t be to the detriment of our existing powerhouses in life sciences in London, Oxford and Cambridge, and we expect it to become the catalyst for new proposals elsewhere.

“The enormous cluster which has developed at Cambridge and Boston is

always regarded as a positive force for the US economy, and I expect the same mindset to evolve here.

“If companies come to us for a couple of years, enter a growth phase and then decide to relocate elsewhere in the UK, that will be fantastic, but you do need a location of this size to attract international players.”

UNUSUA l SKI ll SET

Equally, Kadans needed someone with an unusual skillset to become its head of commercial given its long-term focus on wet lab-enabled real estate, and it’s clear why they brought Sheppard in from Cushman & Wakefield, where he was head of life sciences.

“I’m a pharmacologist by training and kind-of fell into real estate,” he says. “I had a role during the development of the Francis Crick Institute working with Cancer Research UK.

“Many of the philanthropists involved had a background in real estate and wanted to understand how their donations would be used.

“I ended up learning a huge amount about how science buildings were built, why particular locations were chosen and also technical detail, about the number of air changes which would be required and suchlike.

“I found it all fascinating and when that project completed, I moved to Imperial College’s White City campus, where I worked on the I-HUB and the Imperial Incubator.

“We created a very vibrant space there, which was delivered very quickly, and I was involved in a similar project for Imperial’s Enterprise lab which was used by students and then joined Cushman’s.

“At the time, there was a lot of talk about life sciences, but it wasn’t at the top of anyone’s agenda. I’d realised I

wasn’t cut out to be a property agent, but always enjoyed the operational aspects of life sciences and in 2020, I took a chance and joined Kadans.

“From my time at the Crick Institute and Imperial, it was clear how important it was in life sciences to have people who had actually spent time in laboratories, understood how they worked and were aware of the requirements of scientists and companies which took such space.”

Attracting talent on a much larger scale will, of course, be a significant challenge for Kadans as the Canary Wharf project comes closer, and Sheppard says the recruitment process is already underway.

“At the moment, you have a lot of growth in life sciences, but across the UK, the depth of knowledge relating to the sector is pretty minimal, so you’re having to find people who work in allied sectors, hospitals maybe, so at least they understand the template,” he says.

“It is incredibly difficult to recruit now, so we’re trying to bring on board junior people who work in the sector, not new graduates, but people with five or ten years of experience.

“We have a lean senior team, so we are giving them reasonable levels of responsibility, training them and trying to grow our own talent.

“If they leave in three or four years, then we’ll wish them all the best. However, we’ve already seen that if you identify people with the right skillset and attitude, then they can really flourish when you give them freedom, and I’d hope that most of our new generation of talent will choose to stay.” ■

For further information, please visit: https://kadans.com/?lang=en

Entrance and interior of Kadans’ Plus Ultra leiden building at leiden Bio Science Park, Amsterdam

HABITAT

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