Member Article

Manchester council leader to discuss city's science and technology future

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese will discuss the future of the city’s science and technology industry at a special event next month.

Marking Hexagon Tower’s launch into the UK’s largest privately-owned network of science and technology parks (BEST Network - Business Environments for Science and Technology Network), Sir Richard will be the keynote speaker at the event and will discuss how Manchester can best encourage innovation and evolution amongst new and existing businesses from within the science sectors.

The specialist chemical and bio-tech science park, in Blackley, north Manchester, is holding a special breakfast event themed Celebrating Manchester’s Industrial Revolution on Wednesday 2 April.

The event will discuss the requirement for Manchester - a city at the forefront of scientific innovation - to be able to leverage its science and technology assets by continuing to provide high quality facilities and support to those businesses within the science sectors.

Other speakers will include Dr Mike Anderson, BEST Network Ambassador, Vanessa Clark, National Advisor to LaSalle Investment Management and Dr Duncan Philips from Colour Synthesis Solutions, current Hexagon Tower tenant and former ICI manager.

There will also be the opportunity for attendees to put their own questions forward to the panel of speakers at a Q&A session afterwards.

Assembled and managed by LaSalle Investment Management, the BEST Network is the largest privately-owned portfolio of science parks in the UK, consisting of six parks ranging from Edinburgh to Kent and contains both geographical and network-wide clusters in some of the UK’s highest-growth sectors.

As a member of BEST Network, the 14,612 m sq. Hexagon Tower facility - that offers serviced offices and laboratory accommodation for scientific and technology based business – will be part of a portfolio linked by shared specialist services, access to nationwide facilities and secure communications that operate as a single entity.

The formation of BEST Network as the largest privately-owned portfolio of science and technology parks in the UK creates cross-network clusters for the UK in some of the UK’s highest growth sectors and priorities of the Government’s industrial strategy, such as energy, bioscience and agri-tech. Together the parks achieve a critical mass likely to be a powerful draw for international occupiers in the science and technology sectors.

The six members accommodate around 250 tenant companies and 7,500 employees. Major occupiers use a range of spaces from wet labs and pilot-scale manufacturing facilities to greenhouses and data centres.

Chris Mitchell, Associate Director at LaSalle Investment Management comments, “Few businesses work well in isolation. They need support, flexibility and investment from a landlord. Inspiration is vital too and that comes from sharing ideas with other like-minded businesses. Make sure those factors are in place and we’ll be able to turn the great ideas coming out of the UK into great businesses.”

Operating as one entity offers real benefits for tenant businesses and those who wish to engage and work with them:

• Efficient specialist services and business support shared between locations.
• An excellent network of business and conference facilities for use by all tenant businesses.
• Communications networks for Government, universities and sector bodies to engage across multiple locations.
• Mechanisms for matching public funding with private investment across multiple sites.
• Achieving a critical mass for presenting the best of the UK’s specialist accommodation to a global market.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .