UNLOCKING GLOBAL POTENTIAL
The opportunity in Oxford
As a brand Harwell registers on a global scale and the panel agreed that Oxfordshire as part of the Golden Triangle bears comparison with any international science and technology cluster.
Yet cultural factors are also at play. Daniel Pagella reflected that UK researchers seeking investment may be more cautious themselves, or encounter more caution from would-be investors, than their counterparts in the United States.
‘Where could the venture fail’ becomes the overriding question, as opposed to, ‘What could be achieved?’
Sarah Cleary, chief science officer of HydRegen, a spin out from the University of Oxford that provides greener and more efficient chemical manufacture in the drug development process, is herself American and endorsed the point.
“In the U.S there is a fear of missing out approach. There’s quite a lot of enthusiasm whereas here it’s more of a slow and steady approach.”
Along with Daniel Pagella, she reflected that regardless of the attitudes of investors, the business of commercialising innovation probably runs at the same pace in Oxford as, say, Boston or San Francisco, with similar timelines.
Her co-founding colleague, Holly Reeve, added that some biotech innovators are conscious of the need to avoid over-promising.
“The life science sector fallen repeatedly into that [trap].” She felt there were examples of companies achieving “huge valuations” that then come “crashing down, forcing them to pivot and face bills.”
Referring back to the UK cultural angle, she said, it was more about managed growth, getting advice from the right people, and going step-by-step. “People might comment that [growth] must be very fast. We will always say: ‘I'm not sure it works like that. It just takes some time’.”
People might comment that growth must be very fast. We will always say; I'm not sure it works like that. In some sectors, it just takes some time.
The panel acknowledged that the University of Oxford has positioned innovation and enterprise as one of its core pillars over the last decade, alongside teaching and research.
“It is now the most successful university in the UK in terms of the numbers of spin outs and it has real ambitions to maintain those numbers,” said Sarah Haywood of Advanced Oxford.
She believes there is confidence that over the next decade, around 200 new science-based companies will be formed out of University of Oxford. “Some of those companies will scale and that creates future demand for space.”
Other UK and European cities with research-intensive universities are also focusing on growing innovation clusters and Oxford needed to avoid being a victim of its own success.
She also warned against complacency in assuming that the wider market understands what Oxford has to offer and/or whether it is ready to meet the needs of major occupiers.
“Big companies may come and look around but if there isn’t something easily and readily available, they may decide to go somewhere else.”
She called for more confidence: “if Oxford builds it, occupiers will come.”
If Oxford builds it, occupiers will come.
Other panellists felt that while progress was being made, over the last 20 years Oxford probably compared unfavourably to Cambridge in terms of having a strategic outlook.
Jon Silversides reflected on the AstraZeneca decision, announced in 2016, that was relocating its largest research and development from Alderley Park in Cheshire to a new site in Cambridge – a decision that reverberated for years afterwards in UK science real estate.
“If they had wanted to come to Oxford we simply had no opportunities of scale at the time whereas now there are a range of options and a fast developing infrastructure for Big Pharma companies to consider.”
The proposals are currently in planning and are based around a new residential, commercial and leisure quarter.
Alongside high-end offices, new laboratory space and a hotel, Oxpens will also feature much needed new housing, 50 per cent of which will be affordable.
Kevin Minns, managing director of OxWed LLP, a partnership between Oxford City Council and Nuffield College that is bringing the scheme forward, said:
“We’re in a really good place now, but honestly this would not have happened four or five years ago, and we would not be having this conversation [about expansion of Oxford’s innovation real estate] then.
It's only because of the cumulative efforts of huge numbers of people that we are now talking about the promise of something coming rather than just [accepting the status quo].”
It's only because of the cumulative efforts of huge numbers of people that we are now talking about the promise of something coming, rather than just accepting the status quo.
The panel was asked to compare Oxford’s proposition with London where the eye-catching schemes include a joint venture between the Kadans, the Dutch science parks developer, and Canary Wharf Group, continues to grab headlines.
In December 2022 the partners submitted a planning application a 23-storey vertical campus offering some 823,000 sq ft space – with the promise of creating a first of its kind vertical campus and one of the most advanced sci-tech sites in Europe.
Jon Silversides of Carter Jonas acknowledged the ambition.
“It will be very interesting to see how the scheme progresses in a location that has not historically been associated with Life Sciences.
By comparison, although Oxford is perceived as being a long-established Life Science market, the pace of activity has been gradual for the last 25 years and it is only the last four to five years that it’s shifted dramatically.
There are several factors at work, including, but not limited, to the following:
We’ve almost doubled our headline rentals over the last two to three years making new schemes viable and giving confidence to the market.
The significant volume of investment into early-stage companies from Oxford Sciences Enterprises and others funding organisations, has resulted in expedited take up and a more demonstrable trajectory for future demand.
As has been well documented, national office and retail markets have cooled, in a large part due to the pandemic and as such investors are looking for alternative sectors, with Life Sciences sector and the Golden Triangle being key recipients.
Oxford’s key role to the vaccine response, whilst not intended, had the effect of focussing positive Global attention on the City.”
We've almost doubled our headline rentals in the last two to three years making new schemes viable and giving confidence to the market.
Daniel Pagella of ARC Group said that it was important to keep in mind how much of the pipeline in London or anywhere else is consented and funded.
It’s dynamic to the point of being quite hard to track. Canary Wharf is part owned by Brookfield, so it has got real conviction and investment and is running hard at progressing. But that's very different from a developer [seeking] funding from the investment market and the reality that a lot of facilities we need for science are far more operationally intensive and have occupiers engaged in [relatively high-risk discovery businesses].
