Collaboration at Sci-Tech Daresbury now worth £21.5m

The total value of collaboration between companies based at Sci-Tech Daresbury has quadrupled in 2015.

New figures show that the business value of co-working between companies, universities and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) leapt from £4.9m in 2014 to £21.5m last year.

A survey of firms based at the Cheshire innovation campus found that the majority of them (74%) were collaborating with either a university or the STFC.

Further, around six in 10 of the companies at Sci-Tech Daresbury said they were collaborating with at least one other business at the site.

The survey respondents were working closely with the Universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester, as well as overseas universities and others in the UK, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London.

The University of Chester and Liverpool John Moores University were also found to be enjoying strong relationships with businesses based at the science hub.

Prof. Susan Smith, the head of the STFC Daresbury Laboratory, said: “The opportunity to collaborate and take advantage of expertise and facilities provided by partners is clearly a compelling selling point for Sci-Tech Daresbury.

“There is culture of open innovation at the site and we pro-actively promote interactions and collaborations with and between companies, the science base of STFC and the universities.”

She added: “Businesses tell us that the collaboration opportunities are of high strategic importance and frequently essential to their business model and growth.”

Arcis Biotechnology, a research and development firm creating new technology for the rapid isolation and purification of nucleic acids, is one business at the campus reaping the benefits of collaborative working.

Arcis’ commercial director, Christopher Jones, commented: “The opportunity to tap into both the facilities and expertise offered by STFC is of huge importance to our business and being located in this dynamic and connected community has brought us multiple benefits.”

Sci-Tech Daresbury represents a private-public joint venture between national science and research organisation STFC, Halton Borough Council and developer Langtree.