New London Architecture

The Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor

Proposed

The Tech Corridor partnership brings together business, academic, and political leaders on a mission to grow the region’s economy by forging closer links between our world-leading knowledge clusters.
Knowledge Networks: London and the Ox-Cam Arc

Knowledge Networks: London and the Ox-Cam Arc

The Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor is one of Europe’s most exciting growth opportunities, home to the people and businesses tackling the grand challenges facing humanity and shaping the future of food, energy, medicine and mobility.

With world-leading universities in Cambridge and Norwich, cutting-edge research institutes and science parks such as the Wellcome Genome Campus, Babraham Research Campus, Hethel Innovation Centre and Norwich Research Park, an ecosystem of businesses including big names such as Lotus, as well as thriving networks to support innovation, commercialisation and manufacturing, the Tech Corridor boasts a knowledge economy to rival any in the world, and one which links to and complements the expertise on offer in the Golden Triangle and other growth corridors such as the UK Innovation Corridor and the Midlands Engine.

Formed in 2018, the Tech Corridor partnership brings together business and political leaders with a shared ambition to make the Tech Corridor a top-tier destination for technology businesses, talent and investors from around the world. It does this through a variety of programmes designed to promote and support business growth, as well as creating a bold vision for the future of the region.

Activities include the development of an ambassador network, through which companies can engage with counterparts across the East and beyond. This has led to several new cross-sector partnerships being formed.

A hackathon in October brought together businesses from across the region with support organisations such as The Welding Institute, Cambridge Wireless and Hethel Innovation to tackle business challenges around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Participants worked on sustainability challenges set by four local firms, all of whom went away with at least one workable solution to their problem.

Increasing investment into the region is also a key aim for the Tech Corridor partnership, which is why it launched the East of England Investment Catalyst, an accelerator programme for the area’s most exciting knowledge-intensive businesses. A cohort of nine companies, spanning sectors including med-tech, life science and ed-tech, were put through a short programme of workshops to hone their propositions, before the top five progressed to a final pitching event in London where they presented to an audience of institutional investors. Two of the finalists secured investment on the back of the participation in the programme.

Looking to the future, the Tech Corridor partnership has been working with Perkins & Will to create a spatial vision for the region. Based on a wide variety of data sources, as well as engagement with over 50 Tech Corridor ambassador businesses across a number of workshops and events, and interviews with key stakeholder organisations, the report takes an in-depth look at the strengths of the Tech Corridor, the trends around sector and business development, the employment hotspots, and the areas which have the strongest potential for growth.

The resulting report will be used to inform the work of the Tech Corridor and its partners in the private and public sector around areas such as business support and development of the built environment. The vision will underpin the partnership’s ambition to create a world-class, resilient Tech Corridor that can be a key driver of the UK economy.

‘East Anglia is full of ambitious, high-growth businesses which add great value to the economy. We want to enable them to work closely together and forge mutually beneficial partnerships. A public-private partnership, the Tech Corridor has been set up to drive and promote meaningful, high-value growth in the area between Cambridge and Norwich. In these in unprecedented times, the Tech Corridor Supply Chain network has been devised to help firms in the region source more products and services locally. Schemes like this, which connect existing business clusters and help develop new ones, can prepare companies for the future.’
Linn Clabburn, Programme Director, Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor.

Project information

Status

Proposed

Borough

* N/A Outside of London

Completion

2019


Location

67 Colney Ln, Cringleford, Norwich NR4 7RG, UK


Team Credits

Client

Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor (New Anglia LEP)

Architect

Perkins and Will

Planning Consultant

Bidwells


Listed by

Perkins&Will

Last updated on

06/06/2020


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