On Monday 28th September, St John’s Innovation Centre, the regional centre of excellence supporting high growth businesses, welcomed high-profile guests from the Netherlands.
Visitors included Mr Sander Dekker (State Secretary, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) and Ms Neelie Kroes, Special Envoy of StartupDelta and former Vice President of the European Commission. The StartupDelta initiative consists of a dedicated team assigned to tackle challenges that hinder growth for startups.
‘We are delighted to share the Cambridge innovation experience with other international start-up ecosystems. We encourage businesses to collaborate and scale up at European level and beyond,’ said David Gill, Managing Director of St John’s Innovation Centre, who explained some key features of the Cambridge phenomenon, including its cooperative culture and infrastructure challenges.
The ministerial visit inspired lively debate between the prominent guests and invited SJIC tenants, touching on UK policy and Cambridge practice in technology transfer, commercialisation of knowledge, incubation, the role of universities and interaction among the private sector, government and academia.*
*First published by Business Weekly and Cambridge News on Tuesday, 29th September 2015.