Innovate Cambridge is announcing its inaugural Advisory Council chaired by Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser (UKRI), and including Baroness Sally Morgan, Roxanne Varza (Station F), Tim Rowe (Cambridge Innovation Centre, US) and entrepreneur and investor Hermann Hauser (Arm)
The Council will empower Cambridge’s mission to become a global centre for responsible innovation to drive growth and tangible benefits for society
Support for innovation in Cambridge from AWS, AstraZeneca and BioMed Realty will enhance capabilities across academia, industry and public services in bid to drive 60,000 net new direct jobs
Inspired by thriving ecosystems like Boston’s Kendall Square, the first-ever Council of its type for a UK city, brings together world-leading expertise in all the major components needed to deliver a globally leading, inclusive innovation ecosystem including policy, investment, corporate and tech. The Council will guide the region’s development in frontier technologies, including AI, life sciences and quantum computing, underlining Cambridge’s ambition to be at the centre of global technology and innovation.
Announced by Sir Patrick Vallance in Cambridge today, the Advisory Council experts have been chosen thanks to their exceptional track records and experience across scientific research, technology development, innovation policy and commercial enterprise. The Council will catalyse the Cambridge ecosystem’s potential to deliver substantial societal, environmental and economic benefits regionally and nationally in line with the Innovate Cambridge Strategy and in response to the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy plans, to provide jobs for the future and improve people’s everyday lives.
The Advisory Council members include Timothy Rowe (Cambridge Innovation Center, Cambridge, Mass), Roxanne Varza (Station F), Baroness Sally Morgan (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University Hospitals), and Professor Diane Coyle (Bennett Institute for Public Policy) who bring extraordinary credentials to this mission. Collectively they hold 12 PhDs, have founded or funded more than 400 companies, raised over $5 billion in venture capital and startup investment, and scaled businesses and corporations to multi-billion dollar valuations. This unrivalled global and national experience will be used to empower and drive Cambridge’s innovation ecosystem to the next stage.
Delivering national growth
The Innovation Advisory Council is a key milestone for Cambridge which is publishing its Innovate Cambridge blueprint, setting ambitious targets for the city and region for the next 10 years. This includes doubling the rate of unicorn creation, doubling venture capital investment, creating twice as many science and innovation companies and generating 60,000 net new direct jobs to ensure Cambridge and the UK are globally competitive.
Recent achievements include launching The Glasshouse, supported by Railpen, to unlock the full potential of the Cambridge ecosystem, securing Government endorsement for a national Innovation Hub and creating the Cambridge Pledge to encourage founders to pledge a meaningful percentage of future wealth, and companies and anchor institutions to make charitable donations to tackle inequality in the region.
In addition, businesses including Amazon Web Services (AWS), AstraZeneca and real estate company Biomed Realty are supporting Cambridge. AWS is providing office hours at The Glasshouse to Cambridge startups, along with free AWS technical and business support, and AWS credits through AWS Activate Providers including Cambridge Enterprise and Cambridge Innovation Capital. AstraZeneca, which champions scientific collaboration and open research environments, has funded more than 150 PhD studentships at the University of Cambridge and provides expert mentors to Cambridge start-up companies and aspiring entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Biomed Realty will launch Velocity Labs+ at its Granta Park site. A first for the UK, this is a new model which enables companies to scale their labs and office space on-demand in line with their business requirements.
Accelerating technological leadership
Cambridge is at the centre of efforts to put world-leading science, innovation and technology at the heart of UK economic growth, as transformative technologies reshape our world. Cambridge, with its 5,000+ innovation-driven companies, 36 research parks and five hospital trusts, puts the region in a unique position to drive forward this new technological revolution. Knowledge-intensive sectors across the city region grew employment by 5.7% over the last year, led by an 11.1% increase in life sciences. From the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University to public services and businesses, Cambridge is putting technological adoption at the forefront of its plans to amplify the benefits across the whole of the UK.
Science Minister and Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor Champion, Lord Vallance, said: “Cambridge’s Advisory Council will bring together a genuinely extraordinary group of leaders and experts. Their insight and deep experience will be an important resource for us to draw upon, as we push on with work to unleash the potential of this city, and the entire Oxford-Cambridge Corridor, to improve people’s lives. I look forward to working with them, to seize the opportunities to deliver high-skilled jobs, better infrastructure and public services, and to build a region where innovative businesses can start and scale-up, driving growth and raising living standards."
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Regius Professor of Botany at University of Cambridge, CEO of UK Research and Innovation and Innovation Council Chair, said: “Cambridge represents a unique convergence of scientific excellence, entrepreneurial spirit and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Innovation Advisory Council wants to harness the city and region’s strong foundations to establish the UK as a global leader for responsible tech progress that creates inclusive opportunities and benefits, locally, nationally and globally.”
Dr Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director at Innovate Cambridge, said: “We’re delighted to reveal the Innovation Advisory Council that is going to support us in driving an innovation future for Cambridge and the UK. Cambridge is the beating heart of UK R&D and we want to turn this into social and economic impact for the whole country. To achieve this as well as make our mark on the global stage, we need input and collaboration with global leaders to work with us to share knowledge, expertise, investment and talent. As the potential of technologies such as AI grows, all stakeholders across government, local authorities, business, education and research must work together to give the UK the best opportunity to create innovation-driven growth.”
Dr Diarmuid O'Brien, Chair of Innovate Cambridge and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, University of Cambridge said: “Cambridge is already a hotbed of research and development. By working together, we can harness its innovative spirit to accelerate groundbreaking research into new technologies and medicines that will benefit people worldwide and deliver economic growth to our city, region, and the entire UK.”
Hermann Hauser, Founding Partner at Amadeus Capital and co-founder of Arm, said: “Everyone wants to reap the benefits of AI and technology but they’re not all ready to understand the potential challenges these advancements will bring. I’m looking forward to working closely with visionaries and experts on the Innovation Advisory Council to drive forward Cambridge’s potential, critically analyse how new technologies are being developed and implemented and ensure everyone across the UK benefits from this technological revolution.”
Roxanne Varza, Director, STATION F, said: “I know the impact that a committed innovation and place-based strategy can have on a country. Since we launched Station F over seven years ago we have seen the explosion of the French tech scene, worked with 7,000 startups and supported them to raise over €1 billion annually in the past three years. I’m excited to work with the Innovation Advisory Council to share learnings from STATION F and enable the Cambridge tech ecosystem to continue to thrive.”
Tricia Troth, Head of Startups, UK and Ireland, at AWS, said: “At AWS, we’re deeply committed to startups. We believe that technology can play a transformative role in helping to boost productivity, accelerate innovation, and enable UK organisations to compete on a global stage. That’s why we’re delighted to further strengthen our commitment by supporting Innovate Cambridge and the Cambridge startup community with office hours, free technical and business advice, as well as AWS credits. Whether you’re just starting to ideate an MVP, or on track for an IPO, AWS offers a broad range of programmes and resources that will help startups reach their next milestone, at every stage of their journey. We’re looking forward to bringing the community together to collaborate, ideate, and drive forward future innovation.”
Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, said: “As Mayor, and in celebrating the UK’s innovation ecosystem, we have a lot to talk about here at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority. We are the UK’s national champion, at the frontier of economically and strategically vital capabilities in technologies such as AI and life sciences. Cambridgeshire & Peterborough is well placed to work with Government, academic institutions and local and national organisations to build on our track record of collaborating internationally, investing, incubating and spinning out companies whilst leading a way forward that serves citizens and society.”
