Innovation Zone funding for Daresbury set to back health tech firms of the future

A new centre aimed at commercialising Health and Life Science research will be set up at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory thanks to £1.8m in Innovation Zone funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

Led by UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Health Tech Business Incubation Centre (Health BIC) will provide a major boost to the city region’s health and life sciences sector.

The Health BIC will drive innovation and commercialisation of research, providing much-needed tailored support to nurture new and early-stage businesses derived from the region’s wealth of assets in Health & Life Sciences.

The programme is one of an initial 21 projects that, as part of the city region’s ambitious Investment Zone plan, are designed to supercharge the economy by creating new hi-tech facilities, providing business and innovation support and training the next generation of talent.

Councillor Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Innovation, said:

“Through this new Health Tech Business Incubation Centre we are supporting early stage businesses and helping the health and life sciences stars of the future to prosper, further bolstering a sector where we already have world-class strengths.   By nurturing these growing businesses through the difficult early days we can help them to create high-quality jobs in the future as well as prosperity for our city region as a whole.”

STFC has over 15 years’ experience working with the health sector at Daresbury Laboratory, including a successful HealthTec Cluster which promotes economic growth through the co-location of organisations, knowledge, skills and facilities. STFC’s track record in incubation support includes the creation of over 1,000 jobs and £650 million of enterprise value from its long established European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre, making them an ideal home for the Health BIC.

Paul Vernon, Executive Director for the Business and Innovation Directorate and Head of Daresbury Laboratory at STFC explains:

“The Health BIC will be part of a family of business incubation facilities at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory. We work with partners such as the Medical Research Council, Medicines Discovery Catapult and industry bodies and universities to create a rich package of support. The model has resulted in 20 times return on investment on economic activity from businesses who have participated in our incubation programmes to date. We hope to replicate that successes as we work with businesses from Liverpool City Region to drive more innovation in the sector and see more investment in the region.”

The programme will provide a stimulus to the city region’s health and life science entrepreneurs, researchers and clinicians as they commercialise products and services.

The support will help by identifying the best opportunities and working with them to reduce the risk of the early stages of development and commercialisation. Spin-out or early-stage businesses, less than 5 years old, will receive a targeted package of support to validate their product or to deliver a minimum viable product and increase their investment potential.

The Health BIC is among the first of 21 Life Sciences Innovation Zone projects that are expected to create 8,000 new jobs and attract up to £800m investment to the Liverpool City Region over the next 10 years.

Notes:

Support available through the Health Tech Business Incubation Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury will include:

• Grant funding of £50K to invest in R&D and help to take their proven concept to market.
• £10k Innovation vouchers for R&D activity, to address a technical problem or access specialist test facilities.
• Tailored 1-2-1 Business Support including coaching and workshops
• Investment Readiness Training
• IP protection advice, including help / assistance with IP protection and strategy
• Post programme completion support will include introduction to investors, customers, sector stakeholders and next stage funders.

The Health BIC aims to support companies in their early business journey and take them from viability through to validation and investment readiness.

STFC will be looking to recruit businesses with high-growth potential and demonstrate an ability to be coached. Tailored support and funding will be given to each applicant over an 18-month incubation period.

£1.8m of Innovation Zone funding will be invested by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to support the Health BIC over the programme’s lifetime.

This is a 4-year programme (three-year recruitment and a follow-on year programme support).   The programme will commence marketing from Aug 24 with a number of business cohorts being recruited every 6 months over a 3 year period. The programme is due to end March 28.