UMIC’s bioscience story began thanks to the vision of a small but focused group – including Professor Mark Ferguson, Professor John Hickman and Dr Linda Magee – to create a dedicated bioscience-based incubator facility in Manchester. Thanks to funding from the Wellcome Trust, ERDF and The University of Manchester, the Manchester Incubator Building containing 90,000 sq ft of incubator space was officially opened in September 1999 by Richard Caborn MP. The Incubator Building’s first tenants included Intercytex, F2G, Motac, Renovo, Sagitus and Syngenta.
By early 2001 not only was our incubator facility full, its start-ups had attracted significant venture capital funding. On the back of this success we argued the case for further incubation and ‘grow-on’ space and in 2003 work began on the adjacent Core Technology Facility building, financed by NWDA, ERDF and the University. The CTF containing 173,000 ft sq was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury in 2004. This facility is unique, sustaining both academic bioscience research and incubation activity running alongside each other.
Our bioscience incubation facilities have attracted amongst others Gentronix, DxS, Epistem and Nanoco, with VC investments in excess of £200m and more than 800 jobs created within the bioscience sector. We’ve learnt a lot and have much to celebrate! As we look forward to the next 10 years, our anniversary event provides an opportunity to fully recognize the commercial value created by The University of Manchester, UMIP and UMIC – through its facilities, expertise, networks and partnerships – for bioscience and Technology cluster development in the northwest region and beyond.
Martino Picardo, Managing Director, UMIC
