4 FUTURENORTH BRUNTWOOD SCITECH


Alderley Park - the internationally renowned life science campus


6 March 2019


“We have a passion for helping companies to form, scale and grow” Phil Kemp


A unique approach


Stimulating and growing start-ups and SMEs is already paying dividends BY ANDREW EDWARDS


It was the biggest science and technol- ogy deal of its kind in Europe last year. A £360 million 50:50 partnership


between Bruntwood and Legal and General, designed to drive business growth in our northern cities and cre- ate over 20,000 new high value jobs in the growing life sciences and technol- ogy sector. The announcement and the forma-


tion of a new specialist company to drive it, Bruntwood SciTech, came in October 2018. So now for the proof of the pudding ... delivery. In addition to creating jobs Brunt-


wood SciTech is looking to treble its current customer base of businesses in life sciences and tech from 500 to 1,500 over the next five years. The new company is also committed


to delivering on the Life Sciences Deal within the Government’s Industrial Strategy, published at the end of 2017. The ambitious business plan would


see Bruntwood SciTech’s assets grow from 1.6million sq ft on day one to over 6.2million sq ft over the next ten years, increasing the value of the portfolio from £340million to over £2bn. It is doing this by working in


partnership, bringing together public, private and academic institutions to


unlock urban renewal opportunities and accelerate growth of some of the UK’s key sectors through investment in long-term capital. Bruntwood SciTech’s portfolio


ranges from medtech and digital start- ups to global life sciences companies. Today it is centred around projects in Manchester’s Innovation District - the Oxford Road Corridor, Cheshire, Birmingham and Leeds. Liverpool also features strongly in its forward plans. Bruntwood SciTech offers an ‘all


inclusive’ stimulus for start-ups, provid- ing a fully comprehensive business support structure for growth; giving fledgling enterprises at the cutting edge of innovation the on-site profes- sional assistance they need to flourish.


As a fledgling small business, Blueberry Therapeutics needed a base where it could turn a great idea into a genuine success story – without breaking the bank. The skin treatments research


specialists say they haven’t looked back since locating on Alderley Park. The business is developing


a series of new treatments for dermatological disorders to take into the American market once it successfully make its New Drug Application in under two years’ time. Chief Executive Dr John Ridden said: “Alderley Park as a science


The business is driven by its over-


arching purposes – to create thriving cities across the UK city regions. With questions being asked about


the reality of Britain delivering on the Northern Powerhouse agenda, Brunt- wood SciTech is already coming up with some hugely impressive answers. l Over £160m is already being invested at the internationally renowned Alder- ley Park, which will see the develop- ment of new sports and leisure facilities, farm shop, gastropub and up to 275 new homes alongside a further £10m of investment which was recently unveiled for the development of additional labo- ratories to meet the growing demand at the site. The 150,000 sq ft Glasshouse, opening in Autumn, will become a new hub for tech and forward-thinking innovative businesses. l The Citylabs campus, which is a joint venture between Manchester Science Partnerships and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, is undergoing a £60m expansion to create Citylabs 2.0 and 3.0. German- based global diagnostics company QIAGEN has announced that Citylabs 2.0 will be its home, focussed on precision medicines and molecular diagnostics. l Manchester Science Park, also part


of Manchester Science Partnerships, was chosen as the HQ for the UK’s only Internet of Things smart city demonstrator project, CityVerve. It is also home to a co-innovation hub, ‘Mi-IDEA’ delivered in partnership with Cisco a ‘living lab’ test bed and Tesla Power Pack Battery. l Circle Square, Manchester’s newest city centre neighbourhood, will see the £750m development of 1.2m square feet of commercial workspace, two hotels, 100,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space, multi-storey car park and public realm alongside 1,700 new homes, as part of a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and Select Property Group l Platform, the recently re-furbished Bruntwood SciTech hub in Leeds, fea- turing a specialist incubator for digital tech and businesses from the creative industries, offers a range of co-working, serviced offices and commercial workspace alongside comprehensive business support packages and will create more than 1,000 jobs for the city over the next decade. l Innovation Birmingham, the region’s leading digital and tech campus, has raised more than £18m in funding for over 280 start ups through its incuba- tion programmes and is looking to expand.


Case study: Blueberry Therapeutics, Alderley Park


park has been extremely helpful. We were the first to sign a lease to take laboratory and office space and with that a virtual company with great ideas, I.P, and a plan suddenly is real. “We were able to lease equipment


here as well. “We didn’t want to be spending


a lot on equipment, so we had an equipped lab, internet, telephones. It was all here. “Alderley Park is a great place


for a company like ours, which is a drugs discovery and development company. “We work with about five


companies at Alderley Park right now, so in terms of drug discovery and development we have all the companies and assets on-site to help move programmes forward. “The positioning is absolutely


fabulous from a getting around the globe point of view. We have an airport 30 minutes away and it’s two hours to London by train. The connectivity is excellent. “We often try to encourage


partners of ours to come and visit and I think they are in awe when they come to the reception because it’s such a beautiful, beautiful place.”


Bruntwood SciTech is proving to be


the real deal. The company’s Chief Executive Phil


Kemp says the unique approach to stimulating, developing and growing start-ups and SMEs is already paying dividends. Its incubator programmes across


Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and at Alderley Park are assisting fledgling entrepreneurs on their journey from a great idea to a great business. Phil Kemp said: “We are focusing


on the long-term regeneration of our cities and have a passion for helping companies to form, scale and grow, ultimately enabling UK plc to be com- petitive in a post Brexit world. “We have an aggressive and imagi-


native plan to grow our asset base in the cities where we are currently estab- lished. Exciting things are happening. “In Manchester the expansion of


QIAGEN sticks out for me. In contrast to all the negativity around Brexit, here is a German company looking to invest in the UK, specifically into Manchester and in a ground-breaking area – genomics will have profound effects on people not only in Greater Manchester but also the UK, Europe and the world. “The potential in Birmingham,


where we’ve invested in Innovation Birmingham, is vast. The site is located where HS2 will run into the city. The knowledge district runs right up to where the platform will be. Get off the train and you’ll walk straight into the innovation district. “One of the great success stories at


Innovation Birmingham is Gymshark, an online fitness clothing business, set up by a graduate from Aston Univer- sity in his garage, which has gone from zero revenue to £500 million since 2012. They are part of our Serendip open innovation programme for enter- prises, which helps global corporates and the public sector to innovate via collaboration with SMEs. We’re look- ing forward to helping them grow as we continue to expand in the city.”


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