Transforming towns

A new business centre is coming to Southampton. The Future Towns Innovation Hub will be a joint industry-academic Centre of Excellence. It will bring together expertise, skills and knowledge, alongside state-of-the-art research laboratories, which can be easily accessed by local businesses and enterprises to advance innovation in the local area.

Based at the University of Southampton Science Park in Chilworth, Southampton, the Future Towns Innovation Hub’s creation has been led by the University in partnership with Research England and the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, both of which have provided funding.

“There was existing University estate which was outdated and not being used,” explained Paul Kemp, Professor of Ecological Engineering at the University. “Our task has been to reconfigure and update the site to deliver a transformational open innovation facility. The Future Towns Innovation Hub is focused on ‘Transforming and Connecting Future Towns and Small Cities in the Enterprise M3 area’, with the aim of enhancing the prosperity, health and wellbeing of the people living here.”

At the heart of the project is the question ‘What do future towns look like and how do they work to benefit the people living and working in them?’. The Innovation Hub team has been working for the last two years on creating a facility which will go some way to answering that question and providing practical solutions to the problems facing our towns – now and in the future.

“Working with the University Enterprise Units in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with support from Future Worlds, SETsquared, GreenTech South and Southampton Science Park, the Hub will be able to help companies find solutions to current problems and work together to translate research into real-world changes,” said Paul.

“There will be three distinct areas on the Innovation Hub site,” he explained. “Laboratories and facilities to enable academics to undertake world-leading research in a range of sectors such as ecohydraulics, electronics, automotive, energy generation and storage and unmanned systems. Then there is office and workshop space for technology companies who want a base in the Enterprise M3 area whilst being on the doorstep of easily accessible research and innovation activity. Lastly, there will be a ‘Hub’, which is an open working and social space for everyone using the site to come together, meet, collaborate, share ideas and make contacts.”

The key aim of the Innovation Hub is to create an environment for the innovative translation of research to commercial applications that will contribute to the economic growth of the region.

“The Hub will provide not only the space but the environment to enable interactions between business and academia to identify impediments to improving quality of life and economic outcomes, which will be addressed through the co-creation of solutions,” explained Paul. “Being situated centrally within the Science Park’s Engineering Centre, it will capitalise on the innovation, technology transfer and business growth capability which is inherent in the Science Park’s operation.”

Artist’s impressions of the interior of the Future Towns Hub supplied by TKLS Architects

Science Park CEO, Dr Robin Chave, commented: “Southampton Science Park, already a magnet for the commercialisation of research and new technologies in the South, is uniquely positioned to host this new facility and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this exciting initiative. I’m confident that the positive societal impacts arising from the outputs of this new centre will resonate significantly beyond our region’s boundaries and for generations to come.”

The state-of-the-art building has been designed by Nick Sherwood at Hampshirebased TKLS Architects and is due to be opened in 2023.

Find out more: futuretowns.soton.ac.uk

Artist’s impressions of the interior of the Future Towns Hub supplied by TKLS Architects