14 July 2008

In response the announcement by DIUS today (14th July 2008) Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, (NWDA) welcomed over £85m of investment in to the science sector in the Northwest since April:

“Following news last week from STFC and Manchester University that the future of Jodrell Bank is now secure, today’s announcement, bolstering the work, just down the road at Daresbury concludes an amazing 3 months for the Northwest and our science and innovation sector.

The £50m earmarked from the Large Facilities Capital Fund to create the Hartree Institute of Computational Science at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and £30m to create a new Sensors Institute, jointly between Daresbury and Harwell is very welcome news. This is a significant commitment from DIUS to the long term role of Daresbury, as one of the two UK national Science and Innovation Campuses.

The investments by STFC and now DIUS today come shortly after the NWDA’s own announcement with St Modwen, revealing £25m of private sector investment for grow on space for companies, which is to be built at the Daresbury campus, adjoining the already successful Daresbury Innovation Centre and the Cockroft Institute.

In total, since April, the region has witnessed a massive shot-in-the-arm with over £85m of investment being pumped in to our science sector, highlighting the importance and international significance of the science workforce and infrastructure here in the Northwest.”