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Thousands of new jobs for Norwich

A £5m expansion at the Norwich Research Park is not just good news for the scientists but will bring a range of jobs to the city. Environment correspondent TARA GREAVES talks to the man in charge.

Think of them as eggs from which beautiful birds can eventually hatch, given the right sort of care.

Fledgling businesses are supported with the resources they need to develop ideas or technology at a purpose built laboratory, or bio incubator, at the Norwich Research Park.

And now, as some of the businesses expand and look to fly the nest, a £5m expansion will give them a new space to grow into at the park at Colney.

The man in charge of overseeing the first phase of the scheme is John Irving, who has lived in Norwich for more than 20 years, but has worked on projects all over the world. “I'm absolutely delighted to be working in Norwich on my own doorstep,” he said.

The follow-on space, which will feature 30 offices and labs, will be in a three-storey building already at the site which is being refurbished to be ready for the summer.

It will also be available for companies setting up at or moving to the Norwich Research Park and discussions with an “anchor” tenant are well under way with an announcement expected in the next few weeks.

Currently, more than 9,000 people work across the park and there are plans to swell the numbers by a further 5,000 by 2021

“It won't just be 5,000 extra scientists and people with Phds, there is a pyramid structure to support the person working at the bench,” said Mr Irving, who works for Colney Innovations Limited, which is jointly owned by several organisations and formed to manage the new bio-tech facilities as well as the bio incubator.

“We will need porters, catering staff, cleaners, mechanical and electrical engineers, administration staff and even lawyers to support the companies. It will be a fantastic opportunity if we get this right, which I am sure we will.”

Mr Irving said that the follow on space would help keep the research park as a centre for discovery rather than have companies which need more space move away.

“It could be a company that started with a couple of people at a bench in a lab who had a bright idea or a technology to exploit which have now got big enough that they employ X number of staff and need their own space.

“Rather than them moving away they can go into the follow on space and from there, within three or four years, they will go on again - hopefully to their own facilities still at the site.”

Up to 300 new jobs will be created from the first phase - one of a number expected to accommodate the growing community of world-class scientists and researchers.



The Norwich Research Park (NRP) is a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, the John Innes Centre, the Institute of Food Research, the Sainsbury laboratory and, from earlier this year, the Genome Analysis Centre.

The park is recognised internationally for the excellence of its research in the plant and microbial sciences, food, health, environmental sciences, computer and information systems and chemistry.

The new investment comes the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which will provide £500,000 as well as the land and building to host the new facilities, £1.4m from the East of England Development Agency, £1m from the Greater Norwich Development Partnership, £500,000 from the University of East Anglia and the remainder from other NRP partners.