Oxford’s West End is emerging as a ‘new frontier of British science and technology’, the minister for science, research and innovation Lord Vallance has said at a topping out ceremony in the city’s emerging urban science district.
Vallance told an audience of senior industry leaders, investors, founders and academics that inner-city science districts present an exciting opportunity to build and retain world-class companies on home soil. The ceremony was for Fabrica, the largest building being brought forward in the West End.
Organised by investor and developer Mission Street and Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the Celebration of Science event included a showcase of companies across life sciences, AI and materials science.
Participating firms included Albus Health, Flexys, Infinitopes, Macrocosm, Nucleome Therapeutics, Orbit Discovery, OxCan, Oxford Semantic Technologies, Porpoise Power, Serox and Yellowstone Biosciences.
The minister was joined by professor Constantin Coussios OBE, pro-vice chancellor for innovation at the University of Oxford and co-founder of OrganOx – which exited to Japanese medical giant Terumo for $1.5bn (£1.1bn) – in addition to Gordon Sanghera, co-founder of Oxford Nanopore, and Artem Korolev, founder and CEO of Mission Street.
“Oxford has a remarkable track record of producing world-changing innovation, and that innovation deserves the space, infrastructure and investment needed to grow and thrive here in Oxfordshire,” says Adam Workman, head of investments and new ventures at OUI.
“As the innovation partner of the University of Oxford and based in Oxford’s West End ourselves, OUI knows that developments like this are a vital part of helping ventures to scale and succeed locally.”
