World Class science and technology🔗

Three Nobel prizes have come from work at Sci-Tech Daresbury including work on characterising the structure of graphene and ribosome.

Sci-Tech Daresbury is home to the UK’s largest supercomputer dedicated to industrial research and development (R&D), supported by a team of around 200 computational scientists, Artificial Intelligence scientists and quantum computing experts in the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre

Connected to UK government🔗

Three Prime Ministers have visited the campus in the past 13 years:

• David Cameron launched his government’s Enterprise Zone strategy in 2012
• Sci-Tech Daresbury was one of the early Enterprise Zones supported by Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and Cheshire and Warrington
• Theresa May brought the whole cabinet to Sci-Tech Daresbury in 2016 where she launched her Industrial Strategy
• Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves visited in 2024 where they visited the Silicon Valley quantum computing company, Psi Quantum, who have established their R&D base at Sci-Tech Daresbury

Image: the STFC

Known for key technology sectors🔗

Sci-Tech Daresbury has been the home to the STFC, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), since the early 1960’s. It is UKRI’s only National Lab and National Science and Innovation Campus in the North of England.

Alongside this it is now home to over 160 science, technology and engineering companies in sectors such as:

This includes international corporates in their fields such as IBM, Hitachi, Croda and Lubrizol but many start-ups and scale-ups as well. These are often leaders in their field selling products and solutions around the world.

Therefore, whatever area of technology you are in it means you will feel at home, rubbing shoulders with entrepreneurs and founders of companies who experience the same challenges but also enjoy the same opportunities.

Attracting talent🔗

Sci-Tech Daresbury developed a talent and skills strategy in 2018 which has resulted in an annual action plan to help companies on the campus be better at attracting, developing and retaining the talent they need.

This includes partnerships with six key North West universities including Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as work with the Armed Forces, digital apprenticeship organisations and local schools and colleges. Through Sci-Tech Daresbury’s network of contacts and support, companies develop the systems, processes and programmes to more effectively recruit, develop and retain the talent they have.

Consequently, the percentage of companies at Sci-Tech Daresbury who say their growth is constrained by a lack of talent, is 40% of the UK average.

More from the Sci-Tech Daresbury Team🔗

Sci-Tech Daresbury provides scalable office, laboratory and technical facilities from incubation labs at our ITAC facility and hot desks in our Innovation Centre through to whole buildings in our latest Violet development.

Whether you’re a one-person start-up or a high-growth SME with a requirement to grow to over 100 staff – we have the space and buildings to meet your needs.

If you a need a Class 2 laboratory facility or a multi-thousand square foot pilot facility or small specialist manufacturing or assembly facility - we have the spaces and buildings for your needs.

Expert support🔗

At Sci-Tech Daresbury we pride ourselves on an ensuring that we have the best expertise on-hand to tackle all manner of challenges that any early-stage science and technology SME might face. From accessing international markets to raising funding and investment, from protecting your IP and tackling infringements to ensuring you have the best technical or marketing advice, we know who and where to go to.

We have run our Gold and Silver partnership programmes for around 15 years with access to expertise in all manner of areas including:

This expert support alongside the knowledge and networks of the Sci-Tech Daresbury team has enabled us to help minimise business failure and accelerate business growth on the site. Only 6% of companies that have set up at Sci-Tech Daresbury have failed in the 18 years we have been operating. At the same time campus companies have enjoyed average sales growth rates of 25% per year over the past 5 years.