Policy & Comms Planning Economic Partnership to strengthen Aberdeen City and Shire as Life Sciences Hub
Economic Partnership to strengthen Aberdeen City and Shire as Life Sciences HubACSEF to Exploit Region's Intellectual Capital in Growing the Economy ACSEF has today unveiled its plans to build on the region's growing reputation as a major centre for life science expertise. The region's growing life science community consists of two Universities, three research institutes, NHS Grampian and around twenty life science companies including Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world). The public private partnership which drives economic development will bring the life science community and the public sector together to push forward plans for the continued development of a life sciences hub in the region, centred around the Foresterhill site, Europe's largest medical campus, and the science and technology parks. ACSEF's aim is to achieve economic growth by increasing the number of indigenous businesses with valuable intellectual property in life sciences and locally-developed patents and to attract more companies and skilled people to the region. A recent meeting between life sciences businesses, the Universities and research institutes discussed an ACSEF commissioned review of the current strengths and opportunities of the region's life science community and what was required to better exploit the intellectual capital. This has enabled ACSEF to set key short-term and longer-term objectives. Short term objectives are: to strengthen the life science community by establishing Scottish Life Science Alliance-Aberdeen as a networking group to promote interactions within the community; and continue to build on other local initiatives including the University of Aberdeen's Industrial Liaison Group. Furthermore, there is a need to enhance the area's reputation and international standing. The longer-term objectives are to build the life sciences hub, promoting and supporting indigenous growth and attracting overseas players in the sector to establish their European foothold in Aberdeen, and building on the existing academic strength and excellence in life science research. Achieving these objectives will require ACSEF to develop a long-term, co-ordinated plan for the sector involving all the stakeholders and attracting funding as well as developing support programmes and services. "Aberdeen City and Shire, which is already recognised as one of Scotland's major hubs for life science, can become a global centre of excellence in this burgeoning sector," says Rita Stephen, ACSEF development manager. "There are investment opportunities out there at the moment despite the downturn and life science is seen as a good bet. We need to capitalise on this and develop our key areas of expertise such as protein therapeutics, drug discovery anti-infectives, immuno-technology, contract services, medical devices and environmental biotechnology. "Making the most of our intellectual capital - that is our people and their expertise - is a key priority for ACSEF. Our aim is to grow the economy by 2.5% and enhance our quality of life and to do that we are focusing on the key industry sectors of energy, life sciences, tourism and food and drink. Underpinning these aims are our seven priorities of improving our transport infrastructure, developing our skills and expertise, anchoring the oil and gas industry in the region for the long-term, re-developing our city centre, attracting more corporate headquarters and speeding up the planning system. "While today's announcement concentrates on what we are doing to exploit our intellectual expertise in life sciences, other parts of our action plan focus on intellectual expertise in energy. These are two areas where we have unrivalled expertise and experience and in which we can excel internationally." To date, ACSEF's action plan under the priority area of maximising intellectual capital has delivered the following: • An external review of the current life science community of Aberdeen City and Shire.
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