Yorkshire and Humberside

Dynamic and Growing

This region is home to some of the finest research centers.

Yorkshire and Humber bioscience again is built on the foundation of excellent research. According to Adam Getliff of Yorkshire-Forward, “The biosciences community in Yorkshire and Humber region is projected to grow by some 10 per cent over the next five years. The region has nine universities and dedicated research centers of excellence. Yorkshire and Humber has evolved as a dynamic multidisciplinary cluster for life- and bioscience research and industry. There are over 10,000 personnel and the industry benefits from an estimated annual private sector bioscience R&D spend of over £213 million.â€?

He further informed that both developing core biotech and mature pharma companies are located in the region. Johnson & Johnson, Smith & Nephew and Galileo Pharmaceuticals are few of the leading companies who chose to be present in the region. The region has identified drug discovery and development, tissue engineering/biomaterials, plant biotechnology and contract research as the focus areas. There have been 50 odd spinouts.

There are seven specialist centers of excellence in Yorkshire and Humber. These are in the Universities of Leeds, York, Sheffield (together known as the White Rose Universities), Bradford, Sheffield Hallam, Hull and Huddersfield. These centers are focused in the areas of oncology, photodynamic therapy, structural biology, plant science, tissue engineering, gene medicine, reproductive biology, drug delivery and nanotechnology. The DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) Central Science laboratory in York is a major facility for food and biological sciences. The laboratory generates an annual turnover of Euro 36 million.

The regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward plays a major role in supporting, promoting and developing the bioscience cluster in the region. It has done significant funding to develop the bioscience industry infrastructure. It allocated Euro 5.6 million investment in the York Biocentre and Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation. Also it has been instrumental in the development of the White Rose Computational Grid, a state-of-the-art computation grid system, which will connect researchers at York, Leeds and Sheffield through a super-internet connection.