Historic triple whammy as £500m investment and global alliances boost Cambridge innovation credentials

Chancellor Rachel Reeves today unveiled a package for the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor that pledges to create thousands of jobs, new homes and transport links to help turn the Corridor into Europe's Silicon Valley.

The icing on the cake was to be a growth agenda at a summit being held by Innovate Cambridge today where the growth plans were under the microscope.

Business Weekly can further reveal that the University's Entrepreneurship Centre at Judge Business School, spearheaded by Ann Davidson, is formalising its relationship via an MOU with Hong Kong University and the HKU Techno Entrepreneurship Core, which supported eight ventures to attend its Ignite 2025 programme to build a corridor between the two ecosystems and develop mutual activities and mentoring to support respective ventures.

The Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School is also building on its relationship with the Centre of Innovation at UC Anacleto Angelini Santiago in Chile which sent four ventures to Ignite – with a further six visiting CJBS during Cambridge Tech week for mentoring and masterclasses.

The Entrepreneurship Centre is seeking to establish a similar corridor in Chile to the Hong Kong alliance – fuelled by the brainpower of the respective bodies.

Rachel Reeves put the icing on a growing and increasingly appetising commercial cake with her £500m package a month ahead of a critical Budget and despite tight Treasury resources.

Her plans include better connectivity between Cambridge and Oxford thanks, in part, to the reopening of the Cowley rail line which will support the creation of up to 10,000 new jobs and homes in Oxford.

Up to £400m of initial government funding will kickstart development in Cambridge with affordable homes, infrastructure and business expansion. In Oxford the Cowley Branch railway line will reopen with new stations at Littlemore and Cowley - connecting people to jobs, homes and opportunity. These investments build on the Government’s commitment to deliver East West Rail, which will strengthen links between Oxford and Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Bedford and beyond.

The funding comes as world-leading research and development facility, the Ellison Institute of Technology, announces a £10 billion expansion of its Oxford base over the next decade - creating 7,000 jobs and putting Oxford at the forefront of global scientific research.

Together this government and private sector-backed boost will help make the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor Europe’s Silicon Valley - building on a decade of work that has delivered 43,000 jobs, £27.5 billion of investment and seen the cities ranked as the top two innovation engines in Europe.

Reeves said: “Oxford and Cambridge are home to the two of the best universities in the world, two of the most intensive innovation clusters in the world, and the area is a hub for globally renowned science and technology. Yet thanks to years of underinvestment, they still lack the public transport, affordable housing, and infrastructure they need. That changes under this government.

“We have massive ambitions for the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, that’s why we’re reopening the Cowley Branch railway 60 years after it closed, why we’re building more affordable housing and investing in business, and how we’ve been able to unlock £10 billion in private investment. By choosing investment and renewal over chaos and decline, we’re boosting growth and building an economy that works for working people.”

Science Minister and Oxford-Cambridge Innovation Champion, Lord Vallance, added: "These investments are a milestone, not just for the Oxford to Cambridge Corridor, but for the entire country. We are going to deliver the housing, amenities and infrastructure that businesses need to grow and that people need to flourish.

"This region has all the ingredients to be the UK's answer to Silicon Valley or the Boston Cluster: somewhere that turns world-class innovation into economic growth the whole nation benefits from. Today is proof we'll back the OxCam region to fulfil its enormous potential."

And Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director of Innovate Cambridge, commented: “Cambridge is a magnet for world-class talent, business and investment, driving innovations that will shape the future - from life-saving medicines to quantum technologies. The investment package announced today for Cambridge and the wider Ox-Cam corridor is very welcome. It will remove barriers, unlock growth, and ensure Cambridge and the UK remain at the forefront of global innovation.”

The Government’s intention is to launch a consultation on establishing a new centrally led development corporation to support the growth of Cambridge; it will also begin recruiting for a new Chief Executive.