The Bristol and Bath region attracts a growing number of future-leading companies in the biotech and biomedical sectors.
The Life Sciences sector has seen a rise in employment in our region. Recent start-up activity in Bristol has driven the share of synthetic biology companies in the South West to 6% (UK Synthetic Biology Start-up Survey 2019). This is the highest level in England outside of the Golden Triangle (London, Cambridge and Oxford).
The sector’s impact on employment rates in our region is substantial:
Bristol contributes to the world’s most detailed biomedical database. UK Biobank has agreed a £50 million contract with the NHS in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Our region is also home to the NIHR Bristol Bio-Medical Centre: one of just 20 in the UK.
There are numerous biotech and biomedical organisations active in our region:
Our scientists and researchers are contributing to the fight against COVID-19. Bristol UNCovER group (UNiversity COVid Emergency Response) has pooled the resources, capacities and research efforts of specialists across multiple disciplines to tackle the pandemic.
Life science companies in the region are using Oracle for Research’s cloud computing capacity for the fight against COVID-19.
The University Enterprise Zone at UWE Bristol offers facilities to companies specialising in high-tech sectors. It’s supported by the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Currently residing in the Zone are:
The University of Bristol and the University of Bath are renowned for producing pioneering start-ups, such as:
Read more about the companies that began at the University of Bristol and the University of Bath.
The University of Bristol also hosts The Max Planck Centre for Minimal Biology. This is the UK’s only science-focused Max Planck Institute.
BriSynBio, a BBSRC/EPSRC at the University of Bristol has helped grow the sector in our region, having nurtured the translation of research into four companies (Zentraxa, Cytoseek, Imophoron and Alpha Nanopore).