Member: Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP

Norwich Research Park is a unique science park location with untapped potential

There are over 100 science parks, in the UK, five are BBSRC Research Campuses, Norwich Research Park is one. BBSRC funds eight separate research institutes. Norwich Research Park is the only campus with more than one BBSRC funded research institute. In fact, it is home to three specialist facilities:

• the John Innes Centre
• the Earlham Institute
• and the Quadram Institute

As well as this, the research campus is also home to:

• The Sainsbury Laboratory, which is funded by the Gatsby Charitable foundation
• a top 20 university: University of East Anglia (UEA)
• and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH)

Joining the research community and benefiting from the proximity of skills, expertise and technology platforms are 40 businesses currently leasing just over 100,000 sq. ft of office and laboratory accommodation, managed by AIP LLP the science park management company based on campus.

The research institutes, university and hospital are not only co-located, there are also many examples of powerful collaborations, an eagerness to do more, and they all share one vision for the creation of a robust ecosystem of science park activity because they are all members of the AIP LLP Board.

Ability to accommodate significant future growth

There is a further 100 acres of development land, with over 1.5m sq. ft of outline planning consent, in an Enterprise Zone, offering support to enable companies to join the park, stay and grow. A new investible structure is being created in order to attract significant investment to support a new construction programme.

Campus-wide Enterprise Strategy with 20 prospects in first ten months

As well as managing leases and the development land, the AIP LLP team, led by CEO Roz Bird, manages campus-wide initiatives including Community building activities and a new Enterprise Strategy which has generated over 20 investment prospects, from the research community, in the first ten months, all currently engaged in pre-seed activity. Also, Sapphire Capital has successfully raised a £1m Seed Fund specifically focused on high-growth start-up companies outside the ‘Golden Triangle’ in Norwich, Manchester, and Belfast.

Global opportunities

New work has started to explore global markets, such as the £100bn global food and nutrition market, to consider the application of technology, developed at Norwich Research Park. This will drive growth of R&D activity, on the campus, and stimulate inward investment from large global corporates.

Why Norwich Research Park?

1. Access to specialist research facilities and talent pool – one of five BBSRC funded research campuses, with four research institutes, a top 20 university and a teaching hospital
2. A growing business community – 100,000 sq. ft built and let to 40 companies from start-up to grow-on and a programme of business networking events and social activities
3. Range of accommodation – to meet a company’s needs now and in the future with over 1.5m sq. ft of outline planning consent, in an Enterprise Zone
4. Enterprise strategy – creating new opportunities through an explorer fund, a pipeline of pre-seed and seed funding, and regular campus networking events to help with collaboration and promotion
5. High quality of life – cathedral city, open countryside, The Broads, extensive coastline
   and range of housing in close proximity.
6. Great connectivity – quick link to major road network, 20 minutes from Norwich Airport, direct trains to London, good public bus service and cycle paths link to the city centre.

Location

Norwich Research Park is based on the south-western outskirts of Norwich, the capital city of the East of England. By road, Norwich Research Park is just an hour from Cambridge, 2 hours from London and 3 hours from Birmingham. The Park is within 20 minutes of Norwich International Airport – with several flights a day to Amsterdam, Manchester and Edinburgh for onward worldwide travel.

Voted as the happiest place in country for work life balance and career contentment, Norwich provides a great quality of life combined with the best elements of a modern city. The City Centre is one of the top 10 best retail centres in the UK with the city centre is vibrant and includes an array of historical attractions, music venues and restaurants.  

Norwich is one of the greenest cities in the UK with miles of riverside walks and cycle tracks, unique 1930’s parks and acres of woodland running right into the city centre. The housing stock ranges from handsome Georgian and Victorian houses through 1930s semis and waterfront apartments to a number of new affordable housing estates on the city outskirts. Outside the city are market towns, villages, and miles of beautiful countryside, the Norfolk Broads and East Anglia’s stunning coastline all within easy reach.

History

Norwich Research Park was first conceived in the early 1960s, with the building of the University, and the relocation of the former John Innes Institute to Norwich. The Institute of Food Research also moved to the site soon after, followed by the Sainsbury Laboratory in 1988. The John Innes Centre was formed after the relocation of scientists from the former Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and researchers from the Nitrogen Fixation Unit in Sussex.  In 2001 a new Hospital was built on the Research Park, which has teaching status in association with the University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and School of Pharmacy.

Today, the Park continues to innovate and has an extensive range of facilities designed to meet the needs of science based businesses and includes the impressive Centrum building, which was part of a significant investment in the Park by the BBSRC.  Designed to deliver innovation from the research base to business and generate job creation in the region, the building seamlessly blends meeting and networking space with offices and laboratories. One of the largest single-site concentrations of research in food, health and life sciences in Europe, Norwich Research Park has world leading credentials to secure the UK’s position as the global leader in these emerging multi-billion pound sectors.