Science and technology have been heavily positioned as economic drivers in the government’s strategy of growth at all costs.
In that spirit, top line politicians such as Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Science Minister Lord Vallance have been calling for the creation of “Europe’s Silicon Valley”, echoing the platitudes of Reeve’s predecessor Jeremy Hunt.
As part of that goal, Labour has turned its attention to the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, a research hub that has been identified as an ideal spot to prop up as the country’s answer to Palo Alto.
It is understandable – the area encompassing Oxford and Cambridge has plenty going for it. World-class universities, easy access to the capital and a long-standing history of producing some of the country’s most successful technology companies.
In just the past few years, tech businesses from the region have pulled in massive amounts of funding and achieved national, and even global recognition. From CMR Surgical’s $200m April round to Oxa’s investments from Google to the public listing of Raspberry Pi on the London Stock Exchange.
The Oxford-Cambridge region has cultivated so much tech success, both when it comes to measurable metrics and international reputation, that it may as well already be considered Europe’s Silicon Valley.
But in that case, why must there be such a concentrated effort on establishing the region as a global tech hub?
It is no secret that Oxford, Cambridge and London dominate the conversation when it comes to UK tech, so reinforcing the idea that these are the main places in which innovation happens seems to be a disservice to the rest of the country.
The previous Conservative administration paid a fair amount of lip service to the north of England via Boris Johnson’s “Levelling Up” agenda, though figures from the region have near unanimously agreed the project failed to meaningfully prioritise businesses outside of the South East.
Regardless, the UK is sitting on a cradle of innovation in the North West that it would do well to support.
Sci-Tech Daresbury in Cheshire, for example, already boasts a vibrant community of scientists and tech entrepreneurs doing groundbreaking research that both advances human knowledge and can be turned into healthy economic returns.
The campus is stocked with advanced lab space, early-stage startups and research and development facilities for tech companies from all over the globe.
“You can’t blame them for promoting [Oxford and Cambridge] and the capabilities down there,” John Leake, business growth director at Sci-Tech Daresbury, told UKTN.
“But over the last 20 years, there is now much greater collaboration and coordination between major cities like Liverpool and Manchester and even across into the likes of Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle.”
Though the area lacks the global recognition of Oxford and Cambridge, Daresbury’s science and technology centre has been quietly establishing a world-leading hub that has as many of the ingredients seen in Oxbridge to rival Silicon Valley.
“You would hope that the UK government would look at both opportunities. If we are wanting to compete on a global stage, we need the strength of Oxford and Cambridge, but we also need the strength and capabilities of the North West,” Leake said.
For Leake, the universities in Liverpool and Manchester are perfectly strong in their own right, and paired with a “well-established industrial base that’s as powerful as you would see within the Oxford-Cambridge arc”, the North West should be considered as critical to the government’s growth agenda.
The post If the UK wants to build ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’, should it be looking north? appeared first on UKTN.
