Core Technology Facility

The Core Technology Facility provides complementary space to the successful Manchester Bioscience Incubator. The building was funded by both the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA, £11m) and European Regional Development Funds (ERDF, £7m) to develop and build "grow-on" and additional incubation space for biotechnology and hi-tech start-ups and SMEs. Furthermore, The University of Manchester provided significant investment for two additional floors of academic research activity in Life Sciences and Medicine.

The four-storey CTF complements the existing incubator facility by providing additional turnkey laboratory modules, flexi-lab areas for “grow-on”, meeting rooms and conferencing facilities. The building has an average gross internal area of 28,000 ft2 (2,600 m2)per floor and atotal area of 173,000 ft2 (16,060 m2). It is aimed primarily at the increasing number of fast growing biotechnology and hi-tech companies in the region.

The specification of the CTF building is as follows:

  • 4modular laboratories each 2,153 ft2 (200 m2)comprising fitted out write-up and wet-lab areas.
  • 4“flexi-lab” areas each 5,380 ft2 (500 m2)of grow-on space (either wet-lab, office or a combination of both)
  • Reception, inner atrium and street area
  • Office areas for SMEs and start-ups
  • Meeting rooms capable of holding up to 50 people - available for booking by tenants or external users
  • Conferencing and exhibition area holding up to 100 people
  • Bioinformatics area for companies specialising in bioinformatics, medical informatics and all forms of software/computing development and commercialisation
  • Staff and visitor parking
  • Access to video conferencing
  • IT support including broadband access
  • Full facilities management support (plant services and maintenance, cleaning, security and general maintenance)
  • 24 hr security cover including: Control door (swipe card) access External patrols by qualified security staff CCTV site coverage

UMIC provides facilities management services. In addition, UMIC also provides business mentoring services to companies that are currently based in the northwest region.This complements the Intellectual Property Management and business creation services provided by UMIC’s sister company, UMIP (University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd.)

Unique Advantages

The CTF Building offers facilities and services that are unique in the region:

  • In-house business mentoring and professional services (e.g. IP, legal, marketing)
  • Fully accredited laboratories for bioscience and biotech standards
  • Full laboratory management services
  • Site services associated with a fully operational biotechnology facility

 For directions to the Incubator and CTF building, please click on the PDF file below.

ctf_and_incubator_map.pdf