Life Sciences Sector

Research and Development

Birmingham's international reputation as a centre of research and manufacturing is cemented through numerous academic and professional organisations. These facilities are at hand within the West Midlands region, ready to provide unmatched support and assistance to the growth and development of biotech companies.

Aston Science Park

The science park is a high-spec destination for both new and established 'knowledge-based' businesses. It is home to more than 105 companies employing more than 1,400 people. Its management company expects to have a further 15 companies on its 22-acre campus when the new Faraday Wharf building has reached full capacity.

More recently, a huge £100 million expansion plan to create a 60 acre integrated campus for the Science Park and Aston University has been announced. Click here to view the full news article.

"We have certainly come a long way since opening in 1983, when we were the first of a new generation of UK science parks", says Dr Derek Harris, chief executive of Birmingham Technology Limited (BTL), the management company of Aston Science Park.

"But, in essence, our objectives have not changed. We are still assisting embryonic knowledge-based companies to survive their adolescent years - and help them to meet the challenge of being able to convert enthusiasm and entrepreneurial flair into commercial success."

Aston University

Overview
Aston provides a strong bias towards science and engineering subjects, ensuring that a large proportion of the City's 18,000 graduates are technologically orientated. Two-thirds of the students choose sandwich programmes, gaining valuable experience of the professional world and making them particularly attractive to employers. Many degree programmes offer students the opportunity to develop foreign language skills and to work or study in a foreign country.

Research
the university has been given a 5 star rating in the current Research Assessment Exercise. It is one of the UK's leading technological universities, specialising in research to provide solutions critical to industry, commerce and the healthcare, voluntary and public sectors.

Data transmission speed, green fuels, small business marketing needs, European bureaucracy and the treatment of cancer are all under investigation at the university.

Teaching
All subject areas have been rated excellent for teaching quality by the Quality Assurance Agency. In particular, pharmacy scored a maximum of 24 points in the Teaching Quality Assessment and biosciences scored 23 points.

Initiatives/activities
In 2004, the university opened its new £8 million Aston Academy of life Sciences (AALS). A first for both the UK and Europe, it is now a unique facility for biomedical research.  Click here to view the full news article.

Specialisms
The School of Life and Health Sciences was rated 23 out of 24 points for Teaching Quality Assessment in biology - one of the best results in the country - while pharmacy teaching quality scored the maximum possible 24 points. Pharmacy degrees are accredited by the Institute of Biology; the Royal Society of Health; the Royal Society of Medicine; and by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain respectively. The Pharmacy School accepts 130 students each year, and has over 70 postgraduate students. The Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Institute conducts research into Drug Design, Delivery and Use and the Mechanisms of Disease and Drug Action and houses the Center for Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy.

Birmingham Research Park

The University of Birmingham Research Park offers purpose built accommodation to companies and projects seeking to work with the University in research, development or training. It is based on an eight acre site in Edgbaston, directly adjacent to the University campus and the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre.

In March 2000, Birmingham Research Park constructed a £1.5m three storey dedicated incubator centre - the Information & Communications Technology Centre. It provides accommodation and also business support services for entrepreneurs and start up companies in the ICT sector.

University of Birmingham

Overview
A world class university with a range of facilities, staff and expertise, providing excellent opportunities for creating high technology research and development projects

Research
Results published for the current Research Assessment Exercise show that 967 researchers at the University of Birmingham are at the forefront of national and international research activity. Overall, the number of results Birmingham achieved at grades 4, 5 or 5* mean that the University is at fifth place in the national research league table.

In the field of Life Sciences, the recent Research Assessment Exercise confirmed Birmingham's premier position for research conducted in the Schools of Medicine, Sport and Exercise Science, Biosciences, Psychology and Chemical Sciences.

Teaching
All subject areas have been rated excellent/approved for teaching quality by the Quality Assurance Agency. In particular, The School of Biosciences has been consistently rated "excellent" for teaching quality..

Initiatives

Specialisms
The School of Chemical Engineering is one of the largest and most prestigious in the UK. It has scored an excellent 21 out of 24 for teaching quality; while research in the school was top-ranked in the latest Research Assessment Exercise. There is an established tradition of experimental research, covering chemical, biochemical, food, environmental, minerals and materials processing. The school supports the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering, which pursues advanced research. Two leaders in this field, Professors Jonathon Seville and Peter Fryer, currently work at the university.

The School of Biosciences has 900 undergraduate, 250 postgraduate students, and 300 part-time students, along with over 60 purely academic staff. The School was given the top rating of 5 in the current Research Assessment Exercise, and scored 23 out of 24 for teaching quality. The School was also awarded an MRC Infrastructure Award in Bioinformatics and Structural Analysis. Research within the School is organised into six themes: molecular cell biology; molecular microbiology; organismal and environmental biology; plant genetics and cell biology; structural biology; and molecular pathobiology.

The School of Chemistry was rated 5 in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, and is one of the largest and best equipped in the United Kingdom. There are 258 undergraduate and 85 postgraduate students, along with 25 academic staff and 30 postdoctoral research workers. Research is carried out in the following areas: chemical biology; laser photochemistry and spectroscopy; macromolecular chemistry; nanochemistry; solid sate chemistry; structural chemistry; synthetic chemistry; and theoretical and computational chemistry.

Other Universities in the West Midlands - The West Midlands is proud to have a number of world class universities, with a total of nine in the region. Most have gained international reputations for their quality of teaching and research, and for their links and partnerships with major employers, many of which are located on adjacent Science Parks.

There are also a number of specialities in the higher education system. Graduate courses in a variety of subjects, specific to the region's core business sectors, including electronics, telecommunications, computer software and healthcare.

Warwick and Keele have five-star research ratings in a number of disciplines, along with other expertise including Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Medical Sciences.

Keele University

The School of Life Sciences maintains a high research profile and attracts major grants from charitable trusts and research councils. Research is organized around four main research groupings:

• The Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology (CAEP)
• The Centre for Molecular Biomedicine (COMB)
• The McKay Institute of Communication and Neuroscience (CNS)

The Faculty of Health incorporates The Institute of Science & Technology in Medicine, which was rated 5* in the most recent Higher Education Funding Council for England research assessment exercise. The Centre is run in conjunction with North Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust and is situated at Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.

The Institute bridges the interface between new advances in fundamental science and technology with medicine and clinical practice.

The Medical School at Keele University offers a unique experience for prospective doctors; a well-established and highly rated medical course, and brand new, purpose-built facilities in which to study.

Photonics Cluster

(Formerly Midlands Photonics Cluster).  Birmingham's Aston University's renowned photonics research group has joined forces with the QinteQ, the former DERA research centre, to create the Midlands Photonics Cluster.

The first company to emerge from the cluster, Indigo Photonics, is a spin out from Aston University into the new MPC headquarters at Aston Science Park. Following a £4m investment by venture capital Company 3I, Indigo Photonics secured a partnership with the gratings division of Oxford Fibre Optic Tools. Indigo specialises in high-end products that enable fibre transmission systems to support high quality data rates over long distances.

More recently in 2003, The Midlands Photonics Cluster and the UK Laser and Electro-Optics Association (UKLEO) have joined forces, integrating all members of the UKLEO into one unified Photonics Cluster.

The merger has already provided excellent opportunities for respective members to work together to create a stronger single UK-wide business network for companies within the optoelectronics and photonics sector. A unique feature of Photonics Cluster (UK) is its ability to acess in-house experitse. This is a direct consequence of the successful operation of a four million euro facility which comprises key end-user focussed photonics systems, which is in daily use.

Click here to view the full news article.

QinetiQ

The largest science and technology research organisation in Western Europe.

In its previous incarnation QinetiQ was known as DERA, the Ministry of Defence's research establishment and no slouch in the field of innovation. Liquid Crystal Display technology - in commercial use for several decades now - was developed there, among many other things, and the powers that be decided several years back that such a wonderful resource should not be confined to the military. Hence the name change, and the links with two of the region's blue chip universities.

Work at present underway there includes speech recognition equipment for computers, and light-enhancing night goggles, as well as the next generation of LCD.

Royal Centre for Defence Medicine

The centre provides secondary and specialist care for members of the armed forces, dedicated training for defence personnel and is a focus for medical research and is based at Selly Oak Hospital. The Royal Defence Medical College is due to be relocated from Gosport to Birmingham, where it will be linked to the University of Birmingham's Medical School.

Science Parks

These provide facilities to transfer academic know how and research into industry and offer accommodation for high tech companies. Apart from the Science Parks at the universities of Aston and Birmingham, there are a further six Science Parks in the West Midlands at the universities of Coventry, Keele, Staffordshire, Warwick and Wolverhampton, and also at Malvern.

University Hospital, Birmingham

Researchers are active within Birmingham's hospitals following the government's initiative to make more of the expertise developed in the NHS. University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust has an experienced R&D office which oversees all research activities, whether sponsored by the public sector or commercial organisations, and is setting up an intellectual property protection unit to make the most of that research.

Warwick University

The university has maintained its position as one the "Premier League" research universities in the latest research assessment exercises.

Warwick Medical School is one of the newest in the UK, and is becoming a world-class centre for research in medical science and clinical effectiveness.

The Faculty of Science within the University comprises nine departments and nine research centres. Science departments have established close links with industry and have particular strengths in the fields of molecular biology, parallel computing, manufacturing engineering, mathematics, statistics, and materials science.

For information on the regions support organisations, click here.

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