Cambridge–University and Industry

Cambridge in England is a world famous university city. Besides the 800-year-old University which is composed of 31 colleges, the city is also well known for its science productions.

Lake on Cambridge Science Park. (From geograph.graph.uk, Keith Edkins)

Clusters of tech companies in Cambridgeshire give rise to this place being called “Silicon Fen”––the “Silicon Valley” of Europe. Cambridge University is a research-based institute. Many research findings have been developed into the basis of the start-up companies’ businesses. With professional experts graduated from or working in the University, this also attracts global giant tech/ life science companies such as Oracle, Apple, Microsoft, and GlaxoSmithKline, to establish themselves in the Cambridge area. The vast research findings and the availability of a large amount of professional experts in the vicinity have turned the university city into a thriving, rapidly expanding place with development of several science parks in the past 30/40 years. Cambridge University and the science parks surrounding it make up the “most successful innovation engine in Europe.”

In October 2019, the published collated data by the University showed that this largest technology cluster in Europe establishes with more than 5000 “knowledge intensive” companies (among which 440 belong to life-science and health-care companies) which employs over 61,000 people, and produces total turnover of £15.5 billion in 2018. The proportion of patent applications from the city is the highest in the UK: 316 patent applications published per 100,000 residents. The number is more than the next two cities combined.

According to a Financial Times article, Cambridge was the first city to develop the idea of science park in the UK. “The first UK science parks appeared in Cambridge in the early 1970s, when Trinity College, one of the UK’s wealthiest educational institutions, set up Cambridge Science Park on land that it owned to the north-west of the city. Aping the US model pioneered by Stanford in the 1950s, the initiative was prompted by government pressure to boost links between higher education and industry. Other colleges, including St John’s and Peterhouse, followed Trinity’s lead.”

Nowadays, Cambridgeshire has about 10 science parks. “To the south of the city, where the life-sciences industry is concentrated, Babraham Research Campus and Granta Park together accommodate about 80 start-ups, spinouts and established companies.”

References

1. Financial Times, 19th Novembr, 2019, Sarah Proven. “Cambridge science parks attract record funding for ‘spinouts’.” https://www.ft.com/content/40174572-d54e-11e9-8d46-8def889b4137
2. Collated data by Cambridge University. Published in October, 2019. /web/20200123223356/https://www.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/innovation_in_numbers_oct_2019.pdf