ARC Group CEO joins 'Science Cities' Oxford

Above: Stuart Grant - courtesy ARC Group

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Stuart Grant, CEO of ARC Group, will be contributing to our January 'Science Cities' discussion event at Said Business School, Oxford.

Stuart is Co-Founder of CoreLife Investors, adviser to Brookfield’s Real Estate Group, CEO of Harwell Campus and ARC (Advanced Research Clusters) and has more than 25 years of real estate experience.

Stuart began his career in Asia-Pacific as an International Executive with Jardine Matheson Ltd. before starting his real estate investment career at Blackstone in London and Hong Kong. During his 18 years at Blackstone, he held a variety of leadership positions playing a key role in building Blackstone’s Real Estate business in the region.

ARC was created by Brookfield, a leading global alternative asset manager with over $690 billion in assets under management, including over $250 billion of real estate assets. Brookfield has over 120 years’ experience in owning and operating assets with a focus on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure, and private equity. Their investment gives ARC the financial backing to tackle projects of significant scale, execute its business plan swiftly and ensure each and every project is delivered to the highest possible standard.

ARC Group says:

'We concentrate companies in Advanced Research Clusters — place-based clusters at the leading edges of major knowledge economies like Oxford and London. They’re unique ecosystems that accelerate commercial growth by providing the best possible working environments for our members.'

The group attracts many businesses to its UK bases. Daiichi Sankyo, whose UK base is at ARC Uxbridge, has received approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for Vanflyta to be used for certain cases of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

The drug has been recommended for routine NHS commissioning in England and Wales and is the first selective FLT3 inhibitor to be approved for use in the UK.

Approximately 18,000 people are diagnosed with AML, a type of blood cancer that starts from young white blood cells in the bone marrow, every year in Europe.

Before the budget, The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and 40  leading organisations in the R&D sector including ARC, wrote to the Chancellor urging the Government to back R&D if it wants to achieve its ambitions for economic and social growth.

The organisations urged Rachel Reeves to consider the vital role R&D will play in the Government’s long-term plans to grow the economy, increasing jobs and productivity. Recognising that public spending is under pressure, they stated that there is a risk that short-term thinking now could damage the UK’s capacity for long-term growth and ambitions around its Industrial Strategy.

Alicia Greated, Executive Director of CaSE, said:

“It’s clear that the Government has ambitious plans for the economy through its missions and Industrial Strategy, and R&D stands ready to play a big part in helping achieve those goals.

“We recognise that finances are stretched, and the Government must make some difficult decisions around where money is spent. However, we are extremely concerned by the prospect of DSIT needing to absorb additional costs relating to Horizon Europe association, without additional money. To cover these costs would require deep cuts elsewhere in the R&D sector. This would lead to the loss of jobs, expertise, and momentum right when the sector is needed to make a vital contribution to boosting economic growth and productivity.”

In a further ground breaking study conducted by ARC – Advanced Research Clusters, HOK, and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) it has been revealed that spaces designed to foster technological and scientific innovation are inadvertently stifling the potential of the brilliant minds working within them by not addressing the sensory processing needs of the occupants.

To date, there has been a dearth of research into creating inclusive scientific spaces. Focused on science and technology innovators in laboratory settings, the study aimed to identify how individuals respond to sensory stimulation in current lab designs. It revealed that half (48.1%) of all survey respondents, who work in laboratory settings identify as neurodivergent, more than double the global average (20%) and more than a quarter (25.5%) identify as autistic, twenty-five times the UK average (1%).*

It highlighted how neurodivergent individuals are particularly sensitive to auditory, visual, and tactile elements, exposing that many existing laboratories are not designed to address these needs holistically. These sensory distractions are linked to cognitive interruptions such as loss of focus and a disruption of creativity and innovation which in turn, directly impacts employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity.

The study also revealed that less than a third (29.9%) of the next generation of innovators consider themselves neurotypical. Without inclusive laboratory designs, the report says there is a risk of undermining these brilliant minds, leading to reduced productivity, poor recall, burnout, stress and recruitment and retention challenges.