Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Having already captured £400m in new investment since 2001, the Park has set itself an ambitious, but attainable target of attracting 10 new relocating businesses by 2006.

The burgeoning relationship with the state is already producing results: Discussions are currently underway with at least three separate US-based companies about establishing a base on the park, an agricultural-biotech will be attending a major food science in Norfolk in May and a senior scientist from NRP will be part of 12-man science mission to Minnesota.

The links came about, according to Dr Belinda Clarke “quite serendipitously,” when NRP attended BIO 2003 in Washington DC. There, NRP made contact with “energetic” Minnesota based British American Business Council official, Paul Duncan.

Dr Clarke said: “We have already created very pro-active links between Minnesota and Norwich, much of the credit for which must be go to the energy of Paul Duncan. We are confident of facilitating real outcomes.

“The director of the John Innes Centre, Prof Chris Lamb is currently in Minnesota talking to three companies about a number of exciting developments and we have had expressions of interest in relocation from a few smaller companies, which are very closely allied to our research expertise.

“Also, a senior scientist from NRP, a specialist in oncology will be part of a science mission attending a cancer summit at the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in May.”

Fast establishing an international reputation for the quality and breadth of its science, NRP is home to the Institute of Food Research, the John Innes Centre, the Sainsbury Laboratory and the University of East Anglia among notable others. NRP based organisations employ around 6,500 research scientists and additional support staff, working in plant and microbial science, food, health, the environment and computer science.

Duncan has forged close links with the UK government, and science and innovation minister, Lord Sainsbury in particular.

As a result, the Government is expected to announce Minnesota’s status as a key potential research and trade partner within the next few weeks, with an accompanying marketing drive.

Minnesota’s potential has been largely untapped by UK companies until now and NRP intends to forge a head start.

Biotech and related companies and research institutions in Minnesota range from established firms such as Cargill, Land O’Lakes and 3M to the Mayo Clinic, and start-up companies such as Blizzard Genomics and NanoMedica.

As the one of the largest US exporters of agricultural goods and home to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, and the University of Minnesota, the state has become a leading biotechnology research centre within the US.

Even a cursory look at its key research centres reveals a close-fit with NRP.

The state of Minnesota recently funded a new, state-of-the-art, 4,000 sq ft biotechnology resource centre at the University of Minnesota, which is home to a college of agricultural, food and environmental sciences, a college of biological sciences, the biotechnology institute, the materials research science and engineering centre and the food animal biotechnology centre.

Over the past three years, NRP has received a level of investment unparalleled among the region’s research hubs.

Major investments in the Park have included the Norwich and Norfolk University Hospital (£229m); the Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research (£8.9m); UEA’s Wellcome Trust-funded Biomedical Research Centre, due to be opened in 2005 (£16.6m) and the East of England Development Agency’s Norfolk Innovation Centre also set to be opened in 2005 (£5m).

Given the ever-increasing strength and depth of its research, NRP has initiated a bold new bold marketing strategy aimed at pushing exactly the right buttons internationally.

Dr Clarke said that, with funding from the East of England Development Agency and a number of Norfolk councils, it had tendered internationally for a specialist marketing consultant.

Dr Clarke said: “We intend to appoint a consultant who can pinpoint our strengths in relation to very specific marketing opportunities, allowing us to deliver bespoke marketing activity.”

NRP has plenty of room to grow, according to Dr Clarke, with outline planning permission already granted on a number for the creation of new research centres for bigger companies and space in the Norwich Bio-Incubator for smaller operations.