Cambridge university seeks £15mn state boost for global science hub

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Cambridge university is asking the chancellor for £15mn to kick-start a new science innovation hub to rival successful schemes in France and the US that have attracted billions of dollars of investment into early-stage companies.

The request from Cambridge for “cornerstone” funding for the £150mn project in the Budget on October 30 comes after warnings from senior figures in science and industry that the UK is in danger of failing to capitalise sufficiently on its scientific prowess.

Diarmuid O’Brien, pro-vice-chancellor for innovation at Cambridge, said the innovation hub was intended to match the success of internationally renowned centres such as Paris’s Station F or the Kendall Square ecosystem in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“At the moment we’re asking universities to deliver spinouts, but the question is how do we move the needle in a way to significantly amplify that? Business as usual won’t get you there. This kind of hub is critical to that, and that penny needs to drop here,” he told the Financial Times.

The plan is part of a clamour of financing requests for science and technology projects, which are likely to be a crucial part of the Labour government’s industrial strategy. 

Researchers and funders are anxious to hear Labour’s plans, after last month’s announcement that it would scrap £1.3bn of technology project support pledged by its Tory predecessors, including for an £800mn supercomputer at Edinburgh university.

An innovation hub built on the lines of those in France and the US would act as a game-changing “concentrator” of innovation activity in Cambridge, O’Brien argued. The city is already home to a cluster of 5,000 knowledge-intensive companies which is unrivalled anywhere in Europe, he added.

He cited as a template the Lab Central life sciences incubator in Boston’s Kendall Square district, which UK officials visited in July. Its allure to innovators and investors helped it capture 21 per cent of all ‘Series A’ funding in the US biopharma market last year. 

In Europe, the 34,000 sq m Station F accelerator opened by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 has space for 1,000 start-ups and is credited with reinventing France’s approach to entrepreneurship.

It hit its 2025 target to develop 25 “unicorn” businesses valued at a billion dollars or more three years early and is now aiming for 100 unicorns by 2030.

If it won funding, the Cambridge UK hub would combine lab space for early stage companies, available for rent on a monthly basis, with access to investors and managerial talent needed to scale up businesses. Successful companies would then be able to take advantage of the growing number of science parks around the city.

O’Brien said the request for a £15mn state investment made in a submission by Cambridge university, while relatively small at just 10 per cent of the initial funding requirements, was vital. It would help turn the hub into a national, strategic asset, he argued.

“We need that cornerstone commitment from the government to sell it both to the market and philanthropic foundations. If we can unlock that funding we can accelerate it at pace. We’re not looking for a grant, it’s a partnership,” he added.

The plan has been welcomed by Cambridge Ahead, the city’s main development alliance, which has also warned that the growth such a project would generate must be supported by related infrastructure.

Cambridge is currently facing water scarcity problems that have led the Environment Agency to block some developments. It is still waiting for government confirmation of a new East West Rail project to connect it with Oxford and Milton Keynes.

“If it’s approved it will provide a high-ambition, innovation-led centre for what Cambridge can achieve for the country in the future, but that’s only possible if we resolve the water scarcity and transport infrastructure deficits we face,” said Dan Thorp, CEO of Cambridge Ahead.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We are considering the best approach to drive forward innovation and deliver sustainable growth in Cambridge. We will make further announcements in due course.”