Member Article

Sci-Tech Daresbury eyes national awards

Sci-Tech Daresbury’s hugely successful Open Week last summer is in the running to land a major national award.

Last July’s four-day showcase event attracted more than 7,500 members of the public, which included 1,100 school children and its success has now been recognised by being shortlisted for best project in the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) member awards.

Sci-Tech Daresbury has also been shortlisted for another of the four awards, for the UKSPA member seen to be “setting the pace” for the most significant contribution to innovation and for supporting the growth of knowledge-based firms, reflecting the continuing success of the campus’s business strategy.

The UKSPA awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of the science park and the wider innovation movement in the UK. UKSPA was created by the sector for the sector and has seen its membership grow from the handful of pioneering parks in the 1980s to more than 150 member locations.

John Downes, group managing director of Langtree and chairman of the Sci-Tech Daresbury joint venture company, believes that this double recognition is a reflection of the unique eco-system that has been created, with collaboration at the heart of campus culture.

He said he was particularly pleased that the Open Week was so well attended: “Without doubt the Open Week was one of our highlights of 2016 and it’s wonderful to be up for this award”, he said.

“It was the first time in more than 10 years that the park had been opened to the general public who came in their droves. It was all encompassing, and covered the full breadth of the campus, with the majority of the site open to visitors including research facilities and laboratories.

“We also laid on activities for the week with 30 partner organisations who staged exhibits. It was the epitome of what we want public engagement to be, involving more than 350 members of staff who helped plan it over 12 months, in addition to their day jobs.”

Mr Downes added that the last 12 months had been particularly strong for the campus, with new developments and a record number of new companies joining their business community.

He said: “The second shortlisting reflects our reputation as a place where business can flourish. Since 2005, 95 per cent of Sci-Tech Daresbury companies have achieved three year business survival rates which compares to a UK average of between 50 and 60 per cent.

“Campus companies also achieved average sales growth rates of 30 per cent per year over the past five years with 41 per cent of these exports. This is all supported by a 10-year collaboration with the Department for International Trade.

“It is figures like these that help us attract increasing numbers of companies to the campus and 34 located here in 2016. But it also gives us the confidence to increase investment and we have recently completed and opened the £20m Techspace One and Two developments.”

When the awards were last held in 2014 Sci-Tech Daresbury was shortlisted in three categories, winning the award for the incubation or innovation centre with the best track record of developing start-up and high growth business.

The Awards ceremony takes place at York Race Course Conference Centre on Tuesday, May 9th.

Sci-Tech Daresbury is a private-public joint-venture partnership between developer Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Halton Borough Council.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Violet Brown .