Celebrating bioscience this Yorkshire Day
From wily, windy moors to rolling dales, Yorkshire is known for its stunning scenery, diverse culture, and rich heritage. Our beloved county is known for many things, but adding to its list of accolades, is its reputation as a thriving hub for bioscience.
With a variety of global biotech players based in Yorkshire and a pipeline of talent from leading research universities in the region, Yorkshire has plenty to boast about. This Yorkshire Day (1st August), we caught up with some of our community to find out why our region is a brilliant base for businesses in the bioscience sector and beyond.
Charis Child, Commercial Manager at Abingdon Health:
“We’re incredibly lucky to be located so near to some incredible universities with fantastic science-based research programmes. With University of York, University of Leeds, and University of Sheffield right on our doorstep it gives us the opportunity to collaborate with the institutions as well as attracting fresh talent.
“As a business which specialises in the development, optimisation, manufacture, and distribution of lateral flow tests for global use, location is incredibly important. We take pride in being a Yorkshire business, with our head office based at York Biotech Campus (YBC), so it means we’re in the ideal location to work with clients from across the UK. This puts us in a great position to develop and bring lateral flow products to market, as we’re within a couple of hours’ travel to key areas such as London, Scotland and Manchester, opening doors for worldwide CDMO partnerships and product distribution.”
Liz Cashon, Innovation Campus Manager at York Biotech Campus:
“The sense of community in Yorkshire is exceptional; the local, national and international bioscience relationships that are forged both on and off campus are a prime example of this. In the past year alone we’ve seen global collaborations with occupier Abingdon Health teaming up with Salignostics to create the world’s first saliva-based pregnancy test.
“We’ve also seen occupier Fera Science launch a new £1m Insect Laboratory which opened on campus last year as well as showcasing its leading scientific discovery to help solve global food challenges in its Strategy Annual Report.
“We’re really proud of our roots in Yorkshire, and it’s been really exciting watching the sector and our campus grow over the past ten years. With an increase in government funding into the UK life sciences earlier this year and many businesses in the sector searching for lab space outside of London, Yorkshire offers so many opportunities and advantages for businesses looking to relocate.”
Dr. Heather Aird, Unit Head at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA):
“One of the reasons we chose Yorkshire, and ultimately, YBC was the great location. Our UKHSA site is responsible for testing food, water and environmental samples for all local authorities in the North of England and we usually have between two and nine days to isolate the source of a pathogen. Given this, we needed a base with good transport links so samples can get to us as quickly as possible.
“Access to current and future talent was also a major draw, as Yorkshire is a thriving hub for people in the bioscience industry.”
If you want to join our diverse biotech community, get in touch.