The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 48: April/May 2020 | Page 11

SWLEP
Wiltshire’s jewel in the crown
given international platform
Porton Science Park is set to gain international
recognition after it was awarded the coveted Life
Sciences Opportunity Zone status.
The Government announced it was one of
only six sites out of dozens that applied,
which were successfully granted the status.
The Government scheme allows partners
on the site to showcase the capabilities
of the Porton Science campus to an
international audience, particularly overseas
life sciences companies looking to expand
into the UK.
As Porton Science Park grows there will
be an increase in international collaborative
projects between industry, academia and
Government that will attract investment from
start-ups to multi-nationals.
Companies would be co-located with
established campus partners including Dstl,
PHE Porton Biopharma Ltd and Ploughshare
Innovations Ltd.
Porton Science Park opened just over
a year ago on the Science Campus which
is also home to the Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Public
Health England (PHE) Porton. It now has
more than 100 people on site helping
consolidate the position of south Wiltshire as
a nationally important centre of excellence
in specialist health, life science and defence
and security sectors.
The first £10m phase opened with
funding from Wiltshire Council, the Local
Growth Fund and the European Regional
Development fund working closely with
the Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise
Partnership (SWLEP).
Wiltshire Council is also investing £2.5m
of capital funding for phase two of the Porton
Science Park project, which is matched by
£2.5m of European Regional Development
Funding. Phase two will create an innovation
centre to provide specialist business support,
training and development for scientific
businesses on campus, plus expansion
space and additional employment from
the scheme. It will build on the success of
first phase, which already has more than
100 people working on site, and enables
businesses there to share resources and
technologies whilst establishing links to
higher education institutions, researchers
and academics.
The site has capacity to grow further,
with a total of 10 hectares available for
development on the park as a focus for
innovation, entrepreneurship and high-
tech growth, particularly in the areas of
biodefence and healthcare.
Life Sciences Minister Nadhim Zahawi
said, “The UK is home to one of the
strongest, most vibrant health and life
science industries globally, with discoveries
and improvements in health diagnosis
transforming people’s lives.
“Collaboration is vital to growing this
sector and this new £10m scheme will
support the exchanging of ideas, knowledge
and skills between researchers and
businesses while encouraging strong
collaboration with them, the NHS and the
Government.”
Cllr Philip Whitehead, Leader of Wiltshire
Council said, “Porton Science Park is
attracting the brightest and best and is
building a reputation as a place where
ground-breaking research into life sciences
and technology is taking place. This is an
opportunity for this jewel in Wiltshire’s crown
to be on an international stage bringing high
skilled jobs to the county and a real boost to
Wiltshire’s economy.”
Paddy Bradley Director of SWLEP
added, “The Swindon & Wiltshire Local
Enterprise Partnership is delighted that
Porton Science Park has been awarded this
coveted new status. It will support our efforts
in promoting the world class capabilities
at Porton to an international audience,
bringing more highly skilled jobs to the south
Wiltshire area.”
First cross-border ‘powerhouse’
to deliver £56bn to UK economy
A new economic partnership across south
Wales and western England which aims
to boost local economies by working
together has gone live with its new website
and prospectus. The Western Gateway,
launched by Cabinet Ministers in November
2019, is the UK’s third powerhouse
after the Northern Powerhouse and the
Midlands Engine.
The Western Gateway is a partnership
of eight strong cities alongside rural
communities in a wide economic area. The
Western Gateway, however, goes one step
further than the ‘regional’ powerhouses
formed to date. The Western Gateway
stretches across south Wales as well as
western England so is cross-border.
All partners intend to focus on inclusive
and clean economic growth, where scale
and collaboration can achieve more for the
people and the wider economies of countries
involved than our constituent parts could
achieve alone.
The new prospectus for the Western
Gateway outlines the emerging vision
and the key ambitions for the economic
partnership. The prospectus has been
developed through discussions between the
partnership’s local authorities, businesses,
LEPs and city regions. It sets out the scale
of the Western Gateway’s ambitions and
identifies the emerging strategic priorities of:
connectivity
innovation; and
a co-ordinated international approach
to trade and investment.
Delivering this vision will add more than
£56bn to the UK economy by 2030 and help
us to achieve a net zero future.
Chair of the Western Gateway, Katherine
Bennett CBE, said, “Our prospectus
provides an insight into the journey we are
undertaking together as a partnership of
businesses and authorities, determined to
deliver growth from Swansea to Swindon
and Cheltenham to Weston.”
Paddy Bradley, Director of the Swindon
& Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership
(SWLEP) added, “The SWLEP welcomes
the creation of the Western Gateway.
Our economic growth is enhanced by
connectivity across our region. The LEPs
in the region collaborate on economic
priorities and the Western Gateway gives
us the opportunity to work across a wide
region to create prosperity for more people
and businesses.”
The Western Gateway prospectus
comes ahead of a full vision document for
the partnership, following the completion
of an Independent Economic Review later
in 2020.
Visit and read the prospectus at:
www.western-gateway.co.uk
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2020
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