Businesses based at Sci -Tech Daresbury in Cheshire developed 125 new potentially life-changing products and services in 2011.
That’s the finding of a new survey, conducted by the site, which examined 85 of the 113 companies on site. The report revealed that new products or services were developed by 52 companies based at the Cheshire site during the 2011 period, with 85 per cent of those generating sales in the market.
John Leake, Sci-Tech Daresbury business development manager, said: “Sci-Tech Daresbury’s rich mix of enterprise, open innovation and collaboration is a fertile breeding ground for developing new products and technologies. High quality office and laboratory space along with specialised technical facilities of the sort available at Sci-Tech Daresbury is critically important to businesses which are commercialising technology and developing ground-breaking innovations.”
Almost half of the companies based at Sci-Tech Daresbury are also involved in collaborative activity with other companies on the site, according to the survey, with the most actively collaborative company reporting connections with 12 companies on site.
These collaborative relationships generated value of over £1 million in the period, through new business and cost savings. Company collaboration with universities is also thriving, with around £1 million generated from collaborative research activity, student recruitment, and customer and supplier relationships in 2011.
Collaboration with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is also key for companies on site, with 40 per cent utilising STFC’s services or expertise, including world class technology and laboratory space provided by STFC, for research and testing.
Professor John Womersley, a Board Director of Sci-Tech Daresbury and Chief Executive at STFC, said: “We are delighted by the results shown by this survey. Innovation at Sci-Tech Daresbury is thriving despite the economic climate and it is exciting to see activities on this scale coming out of the North West.
Sci-Tech Daresbury combines the key factors required for successful innovation: excellence in science, world-class facilities and capability, a collaborative culture, and entrepreneurial expertise. It is when these come together that we see the development of products and technologies which have a potentially global impact.”
The site, which took on Enterprise Zone status on April 1st this year, is a private-public sector joint venture partnership with developers and investors, Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and Halton Borough Council.
Sci-Tech Daresbury is set to expand over the next twenty years to become a ‘technology village’ which will deliver as many as 15,000 highly skilled jobs and attract new international technology businesses to the North West.