32 . Glasgow Business February 2015
> > Continued from page 31 Te renewables research base
in Glasgow is particularly strong with the International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone next to the University of Strathclyde housing the UK’s Offshore Renewables Catapult and the UK’s Technology Strategy Board Future Cities Demonstrator. Te city also hosts the Power
Networks Demonstration Centre at the University of Strathclyde, a joint venture between the university, Scotish Enterprise, the Scotish Funding Council and ScotishPower and SSE. A recent addition to the city’s
energy sector community is the All Energy Conference, which will be based here for the next three years. Te sixth reason the city is an
economic powerhouse is its strong performance in services: Glasgow is a thriving financial and business services centre. Te sector made the biggest
contribution to Glasgow’s growth in the first decade of the 21st century, taking the city up to 74th in the rankings of the world’s financial centres. Tere are 52,000 financial and
business sector jobs in the city of Glasgow with 15,000 net new jobs created in the first 10 years of operation of the International Financial Services District. Major players with bases here
include Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Esure, Barclays Wealth, Santander, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Shell and Tesco Bank. Tis major presence of the
sector has stimulated the city’s office market with four new office projects totalling £210 million of investment and 500,000 sq ſt of space in development. Another significant and
growing part of the city’s business make-up is seeing major developments: Glasgow has a large and distinctive life sciences industry. From BioCity Scotland in
Newhouse through the West of Scotland Science Park and the new South Glasgow University Hospital complex to GlaxoSmithKline’s facilities and enterprise zone in Irvine, the Glasgow BioCorridor has internationally significant strengths in stratified medicine, medical devices and industrial biotechnology. Te academic offering in
Glasgow is strong, including the University of Strathclyde hosting the Industrial Biotechnology Centre and the Institute of Medical Devices. A total of 22,000 students are currently studying life sciences in Glasgow. Te strength of the sector is
reflected in the fact that 36 per cent of Scotland’s life science companies and 50 per cent of its medical device businesses are based in Glasgow. South Glasgow University
Hospital when it opens later this year will be one of the most advanced and largest critical care hospitals in the UK and will bring
BUSINESS CREATION TARGET EXCEEDED
Glasgow is ahead of its target of creating 2,000 businesses within four years.
together clinical practitioners, academic researchers and business on one site. It will house, among many
facilities, the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre led by the University of Glasgow and will exploit Scotland’s unique research in commercial and non-commercial clinical trials. Te eighth reason Glasgow is
an economic powerhouse sees the return of an old favourite: our engineering sector is right back at the heart of Glasgow’s economy. With an estimated 10,000
professional engineers operating in the city, Glasgow is still very
Councillor Gordon Matheson,
the City Council Leader set out the target at the State of the City Economy conference in November 2013, to be achieved by 2017. He told the November 2014
event: “Our business base has grown this year by 690 – above the Scottish and UK averages, and ahead of target.”
much a centre of engineering excellence. It makes the single biggest contribution to Scotland’s manufacturing economy with 800 manufacturing units employing around 20,000 people. Powerful companies in the
sector trading across the globe include Te Weir Group, Aggreko, Howden, Doosan Babcock, Tales, BAE Systems, and Clyde Blowers among others. Glasgow has 9,000 students
studying engineering and a range of research centres, including the Advanced Forming Research Centre at Strathclyde University, the Innovation Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems in George Street and the UK’s first Fraunhofer facility in the Centre for Applied Photonics, also at Strathclyde. Te University of Strathclyde
has also been appointed a strategic partner to the UK’s National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. Glasgow is set to be the UK’s sole centre for advanced warship building at BAE Systems’ Clyde yards. Te ninth reason is teaching
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