Pirbright Innovation Hub

Project description

Enterprise M3 have invested £1 million to support the development of an Innovation Hub at the Pirbright Institute. This investment supports the wider formation of an innovation cluster designed to attract inward investment that will significantly enhance the ability to capitalise on innovative science. This is both in terms of achieving tangible commercial outcomes and building the national and international reputation of both Surrey and the UK in terms of innovation in the bio-sciences, leading to long term benefits regarding the level and sources of their funding streams. The project will achieve this through capitalising upon an already well-established base in the Surrey area – namely The Pirbright Institute, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and the University of Surrey – driving additional value through further integration of their work and through leveraging their unique assets directly in support of business innovation.

The project will enable scientists at Pirbright to foster interaction and generate new and collaborative business ideas. It will deliver facilities including flexible meeting rooms and an IT room for small and larger scale training. The unique skills, expertise, capabilities and facilities at Pirbright have been funded and established for research purposes but they also have enormous potential for skills development and innovation. The hub will therefore provide “access” to this potential through a suite of training courses.

Project output

• Office space to accommodate visitors from research laboratories
• 4 clean-space laboratories to accommodate business innovation collaborations
• A suite of rooms designed to offer flexible training facilities.
• A series of training courses
• 10 FTE direct jobs
• 11 FTE indirect jobs
• 15 FTE direct jobs safeguarded
• 37 training courses running per year
• 242 people trained per year