Anglia Innovation Partnership CEO to join our 'Science Cities' forum at Wellcome Genome Campus

Image: Roz Bird courtesy of Anglia Innovation Partnership

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Roz Bird, Chief Executive of Norwich Research Park, will be speaking at our 'Science Cities' discussion event in June, hosted by the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.

A Chartered Surveyor, and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Roz joined Norwich Research Park as Chief Executive Officer, for Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management company, in May 2022.

Roz leads the team that has established the campus-wide enterprise programme, new engagement opportunities with multinationals and has worked with the AIP Board to agree a real estate investment partnership with Vengrove to deliver a series of new buildings to accommodate growing businesses on the campus and attract new and established companies from across the UK and overseas.

Working with AIP, Vengrove has started on site with the first privately funded, speculative laboratory and office building (63,000 sq ft) due to complete in Q1 2027.

Prior to joining AIP LLP, Roz had a very successful career managing urban regeneration projects and science parks, for MEPC Ltd, in Cambridge, Silverstone, Milton Keynes and Bristol. During that time, she also helped establish Silverstone Technology Cluster and pioneered the Ox-Cam Arc as the UK’s first ‘supercluster’.

Previously Roz was Business Development Manager for the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA). In November 2023 Roz was elected to the UKSPA Board and in June 2024 Roz became Co-ordinator for Women in IASP (International Association of Science Parks).

Norwich Research Park has been speaking about its expertise and support from Government and investors:

'With a significantly robust track record of nearly a billion pounds of public funding and strong support from the Government and external investors, Norwich Research Park is nurturing an ecosystem that is delivering discovery science, enterprise activity and business growth across the one campus. This supportive infrastructure and funding landscape has been cultivated by Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management company for Norwich Research Park, to enable investment in four key global market sectors – agri-biotech, food biotech, industrial biotech and medtech.

'To maximise the impact of the publicly-funded research conducted across the campus, Anglia Innovation Partnership is working with real estate investors, venture capitalists and philanthropic organisations to boost the growth of the ecosystem.

Norwich Research Park is now in a very strong position to secure its current science and research activity, attract new companies that will deliver growth to the local economy by creating jobs whilst helping to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges such as feeding the world with nutritious food, preventing disease and reducing the environmental impact in the face of climate change.

'Working with investors, the ambition is to build a future that not only transforms scientific understanding into real world applications but that also delivers a lasting impact in terms of sustainable jobs, a re-energised sector supply chain and further inward investment, over the longer term.

'Often, the most effective way to translate the numerous, and often ground-breaking, research discoveries into real-world impacts is by commercialising them. This more often than not requires the setting up of businesses to bring the products or services to market. There are three key factors that make Norwich Research Park a credible location for this to happen.

• It is well placed to attract the investment to support the commercialisation of the research. It receives its public funding for research, primarily from the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council), which directly funds three of the Park’s research institutes – the Earlham Institute, the John Innes Centre and the Quadram Institute. These three institutes between them attract around 40% of the BBSRC’s annual strategic funding.

• Having received a public commitment of £317.7m from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory are jointly developing brand new state-of-the-art facilities, over the next ten years, that will deliver net zero carbon-ready laboratories, new collaboration space and improved access to a wide range of technology platforms.

• A strong pipeline of new start-up and spin-out companies have emerged from the campus-wide enterprise programme that nurtures innovative ideas and supports them to become fully fledged businesses. Anglia Innovation Partnership manages a pre-seed fund for researchers to test their ideas and provides them with access to future funding through introductions to investors such as Sapphire Capital, Deep Tech Seed Fund and Greensphere.'