An important theme that runs through the 120 year history of the University of Surrey is the institution’s strong links with industry and business. This long tradition has been important in steering the plans for the development of the Surrey Research Park because the University was able to use its cultural heritage as a foundation for this project.
Battersea Polytechnic Institute was a purpose built college in the South London district of Battersea, which was founded in 1891 and opened in February 1894. The Institute took on a more scientific and technical leaning from 1920, leading it to be renamed the Battersea College of Technology in 1957. In 1966 it became the University of Surrey and moved out to premises in Guildford in 1968. (The Robbins Report 1963)
The original purpose for the Polytechnic was to provide higher education for the poor and offered courses primarily focussed on engineering, building trades and physical sciences as well as some arts subjects. During the years 1927 to 1939 the Polytechnic consolidated with a growing emphasis on science, engineering and metallurgy.
During the mid to late 1800 a number of advanced technology companies of the day begun to move to the area of Battersea situated along the south bank of the River Thames in West London. These companies, which included the brewing company Guinness, Garton’s Sugars, the Unilever company Prices and the heavy industrial company Morgan Crucible, all needed engineers to develop, manage and operate their respective complex plants. The links between Battersea College and these industrial complexes established an early foundation to the strong links that have endured between the University of Surrey and industry companies which eventually led to the creation of the Surrey Research Park in order to extend these linkages in the modern era.
In 1966 nearly three quarters of a century after the foundation of Battersea College of Technology was transformed into the University of Surrey through a Royal Charter. At the same time it relocated to Guildford which is the County Town of Surrey that lies just 50 km southwest of Battersea.
This transformation was in response to growing numbers of young people that were part of the post 1939-45 World War peak in birth rate and the national need for an increase in the number of places in full time higher education(The Robbins Report 1963) and the need to find a larger site on which to develop.
Guildford also has a long history as it has been a settlement of over 1,000 years during much of which it relied on its location as a cross roads between significant traffic travelling from London to the south coast naval port of Portsmouth and more minor traffic following an east west route across south of England as part of the Pilgrims Way. Although primarily a market town in the early 20th Century Guildford attracted some automotive manufacturing and established the first purpose-built motor vehicle factory in Britain1; however in the middle of the late 1950s and early 1960s both the automobile manufacturing and the agricultural market activities begun to decline and the Town Council saw the opportunity for a further period of development by attracting a university to the town and laying the foundation for its future as a knowledge based economy.
In 1966 in collaboration with Guildford’s Town Council the University was able purchase 300 acres (125 ha) of land which was the minimum area required by the UK government if it was to agree to fund the relocation of Battersea Polytechnic to Guildford and establish itself as a university town by hosting the University of Surrey. This minimum land allocation was required to ensure that the University would have sufficient land on which to develop in the future and prevent the problem faced by its pre-cursor organisation which had become land locked on a small site in the south west of London.
In 1966 the new University received its Royal Charter and following a land use planning enquiry which was supported by the town of Guildford and the County of Surrey, planning permission was granted for the University to be established its 300 acre site on the western edge of the town.
The legacy of the origins of the University of Surrey, of supporting an industrial base in London, came with it to Guildford.
Features of this legacy include: significant research links with industry; having in place a department that is dedicated to managing industrial research contracts, technology licensing, and managing a the University’s business development outreach unit; and offering each student at the University the opportunity for a one year accredited industrial or professional placement as part of the any degree course. This tradition continues, although today the placement year is now no longer a compulsory part of all degree courses; however, its value is that it continues to connect the University to industrial companies and professional organisations across the UK and further abroad and helps the University maintain its leading position for graduate employment in the UK. The tradition of working with the business and industry has helped to build Surrey’s reputation of a business focussed research led University.
1 http://transportheritage.com/find-heritage-locations.html?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=91&sobi2Id=631
2. SCIENCE PARKS ? AN EMERGING TREND IN THE UK
As early as 1964 the British Government urged UK higher education institutions to expand their contact with industry with the objective of increasing the rate of technology transfer to the market place in order to increase the payback from investment in basic research in the form of new creating new technologies(Edgerton 1996). One impact was that the Mott
Committee,2 in its report published in 1969, recommended an expansion of ‘science-based industry’ close to Cambridge to take maximum advantage of the concentration of scientific expertise, equipment and libraries and to increase feedback from industry into the Cambridge scientific community.
This change opened the way for creating the Trinity College backed Cambridge Science Park in 1979. The impact of the Cambridge Science Park was described in the Cambridge Phenomenon(Segal et al 1985) which was characterised by a surge in the formation and growth of high-tech firms and associated services which today employ over 23,000 people3 and now forms the backbone of the subregion’s successful knowledge based economy.
In 1979 the idea of extending the University of Surrey’s links with industry by creating the Surrey Research Park was promoted by the University of Surrey with the planning authority of Guildford in order to secure an allocation in the County Plan (Structure Plan) for the development of a 70 ac (28.5 ha) site.4 Their support gave the University the necessary approval in principle to begin to develop the idea for the Surrey Research Park.
In 1981 the UK government reduced its funding for the UK higher education system. This led to those universities which were worst affected by this reduction of state funding to look to other ways to protect their future using their own resources. The University of Surrey used this challenge to accelerate its plans for the development of the Surrey Research Park.
The University formed an internal committee which was chaired by an eminent industrialist and was tasked to oversee the development of the Park. The committee recruited a young academic to take on the position of the Director of the Park to drive the development of the site. The local land use planning authority in Guildford granted permission in 1983 for the initial phase of development of the Surrey Research Park.
In 1984, a wave of 7 science parks founded in the UK at that time set up the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA). The Surrey Research Park was one of these parks but is now one of 67 operational parks in the UK that are members of the UK Science Park. The membership numbers of the UK Science Park Association are noted in table 1.
The location and names of the UKSPA member parks are noted in Fig. 2 and Table 1.
[Table 1.] List of members of the UKSPA 2012
List of members of the UKSPA 2012
The original 8 science parks in the UK were all hosted by universities. However, over the last 30 years other kinds of hosts in the UK have taken the science park model and adapted to suit their own objectives. These hosts now include government defence laboratories such as Porton Down chemical and biological defence laboratories which hosts the Tetricus Park, and the Malvern Hills Science Park which has as its host another UK defence agency complex. A further important trend that is emerging is the location of science parks on corporate research facilities such as the Unilever R&D facility in Colworth Bedfordshire and the Motor Industries Research Association’s research facilities in Nuneaton. This diversification of hosts demonstrates the versatility of the European science park model all of which are local initiatives that focus on building technology clusters around their local knowledge infrastructure
The success of this strategy is noted by the number of companies located on UKSPA member’s parks(Fig. 3).
The number of employees in these companies are shown in Fig. 4.
Typically the objectives for science parks combine the
[Table 2.] Strategic objectives for science parks
Strategic objectives for science parks
interests of the three usual stakeholders of government, the host organisation and the tenant companies. However, a common theme that binds together these stakeholders in the projects is wealth creation.
The original objectives, or value propositions, for the Surrey Research Park that were set out in its business plan relate to its three stakeholders of: the local government, which is the planning authority; the University of Surrey as land owner, investor, developer and manager of the park; and the tenant companies that have a vested interest in the site providing benefits which lead to a competitive advantage for their business.
The broad strategic objectives for each of these stakeholders are noted in Table 2.
These conceptual objectives were then translated into a series of development objectives for the site which were based on an analysis in 1982 of the market for suitable accommodation for small technology companies in the region. This comprised a telephone based survey of 100 technology companies and research laboratories within 25 miles of the proposed park, and an assessment of the other 7 science parks that were being established in the UK in that period.
The findings from this study included:
Access to the commercial property market at that time in the UK was a very significant barrier to entrepreneurs wishing to establish a small technology based company particularly where they had no trading record. All commercial property was offered on long leases of around 25 years and occupation required substantial rental deposits. In addition few if any small high quality units were available for this emerging market of micro and small technology companies. This was recognised as a significant barrier to technology based SMEs establishing an office base from which to develop their activities. The Science Park movement pioneered short occupational leases and licences for high risk technology companies.
The emerging personal computer revolution which significantly reduced the cost of computing created an opportunity for small science, engineering and technology companies to establish a business without the need for access to substantial capital resources. Access to low cost versatile computing not only supported business in existing markets but created a number of technology enabled markets for software which has for many years and continues to drive the ICT sector.
Revising the received wisdom that the commercialisation of most R&D required very sophisticated laboratories. Most of the companies that were interviewed were looking for accommodation that would take technology beyond the discovery phase towards the market and it was not straight laboratory space that was required but rather a mixture of laboratories and office space for commercial activities or pure office space.
New markets were emerging through the de-regulation of such industrial sectors as ICT and the financial sector; there was increasing regulation concerning the environment, the automotive industry and the energy sector; and the change in attitude by government to the release of intellectual property (IP) from its defence laboratories and the management of IP in universities were producing a raft of new technology enabled markets which were attractive to young technology entrepreneurs.
The study led to the conclusion that the facilities that should be built:
Should be able to provide units of a number of sizes in order to allow companies to move to match accommodation with need.
The accommodation should be planned to enable its use as wet (chemistry/biotech), dry (engineering laboratories) or for office accommodation.
The nature of occupancy contracts should be able to be offered for lengths which suit high growth companies that need to be able to grow rapidly, or if they sell some of their business, to reduce in size.
The Park should not restrict tenants to technologies in which the University was a leader because this would limit the capacity of entrepreneurs that were seeking to merger new technologies to develop new markets: the decision was made to make the park technologically promiscuous.
2.2 Physical development and Master Plan
Part of the success for of the Surrey Research Park derivesfrom the interpretation and translation of the conceptual jectives into a physical plan that would meet the needs of a new type of small technology company that could be established sing the new business tools provided by access to lower cost computing.
The development objectives that were a response to the perceived market were used to establish a Master Plan. This Plan, which still works well after 30 years of developing the site is based on creating three distinct zones on the park. These were planned to accommodate:
Small units for small start up companies or specialist parts of large companies; this offers units ranging in size from 25m2 (250 ft2) to 300 m2(3,000 ft2).
Medium sized units: this is for companies with an annual turnover of between £15 and £40 million or for national research facilities of multinational companies.
Large building to accommodate headquarters for technology businesses, research centres for large technology based companies and facilities for high value manufacturing activities such as building satellites.
In addition to this broad zoning plan which was proposed by the University a number of other planning criteria were imposed by the town’s planning department as part of the agreed Master Plan. This covered such matters as the width of access roads, parking ratios of 1 car space to 23m2 of gross space, building lines, architectural style, building materials, building heights, the density of development (25%), building footprints (15%) the principle of screening cars behind buildings and a landscape plan.
The total permitted area under the 1984 planning permission allowed 71,250 m2 of gross external space. The original intention was to develop the whole site by 1991 but the University, by undertaking the development itself, has been cautious and has built at a lower rate. In 2012 the development had reach 90% completion. Between 1983 and 1994 the University developed the site by constructing a series of speculative projects for SMEs. The policy post 1994 has been to build to order rather than on as speculative developments. Part of the logic for this shift in strategy was that by 1994 the areas of the site allocated to small start up and grown on space had been fully developed.
Details of the rate of build of space on the Surrey Research Park are noted in Fig. 6.
The agreed plan has proved to be not only versatile but also gives comfort to potential occupiers as they can see that the Park provides accommodation for future growth of their companies.
One of the features of science and technology park brand of development is the restriction on the permitted uses on these sites. The importance of this is that it maintains a standard of occupier and also prevents mission drift towards accepting tenant companies that may not be appropriate for the site. The permitted use agreed with the planning authority for the Surrey Research Park allows research, development and design in any science including the social sciences and is complementary to the activities of the University of Surrey. This use clause reflects the difference between a science park and a research park. The former also allows some limited high value low volume manufacturing on the site.
In 2011 a 40,000 m2 technical and production facility was completed for a spin out company (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd ? SSTL) from the University. It is now clear that the original planning use for the sites was too prescriptive as this failed to provide the flexibility to allow the complete cycle of laboratory to production in one location. This issue has now been resolved with a wider use being permitted on the Park.
The experience in Korea(Oh and Yeom 2012) is that for a long term economically sustainable activity to develop from a science and technology park there is a need to provide a land allocation to enable manufacturing to be developed from the activities on the Park as a development matures.
There is also evidence that when science parks are located next to a research hospital there is potential for establishing successful translational research clinics on these sites. Experience has shown that the location of the Surrey Research Park next to a National Health Service regional research hospital has attracted a number of hospital consultants to set up specialist clinics on the Park. The work in these clinics does not conflict with the permitted use because the kind of work done by medical consultants develops can lead to advances medical practice which can be justified as an acceptable use. The experience at Surrey is that a number of patents have been granted to clinicians working in these centres.
2 Mott Committee, a special Cambridge University Committee set up under the Chairmanship of Sir Nevill Francis Mott (then Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics) to consider an appropriate response from Cambridge to an initiative of the Labour government following its election in 1964 published its findings in 1969 in the Mott Report.
3 http://www.cambridgefutures.org/futures2/report1.htm
4 Our Tranport Heritage Rodboro Buildings, Guildford http://transportheritage.com/find-heritage-locations.html?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=91&sobi2Id=631
3. INTERNAL MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
In 1983 the University of Surrey concluded that to undertake the development of the Surrey Research Park itself would be the best way to control the development and meet is stated objectives. The management structure that was selected is noted in Fig. 7.; however, the University also considered a second option which it may have had to adopt if it could not raise the funds itself for the development. This second option in noted in Fig. 8.
This structure was selected for the Surrey Research Park.
In selecting the right management structure the University reviewed the risks associated with the different ownership and management structures. The observations are noted in Table 3.
The Management Team and its Board operated under del
egated powers from the University’s Finance Committee and was able to decide on investments in the Park and to authorise taking loans for development.
The Development Team that eventually changed into the Management Team for the site was established as an Enterprise Group of the University rather than as a separate company. However, this Group operates a separate bank account from the main University account for operational purposes and any surpluses are transferred to the University at the end of each financial year.
The Surrey Research Park is one of the few self funded parks in the UK. In the initial planning stage two potential funding plans were explored. The first involved seeking joint venture partners with a commercial developer for each individual phase. The second option was a land sale (on a long leasehold arrangement ? 125 years) to an anchor tenant which would secure a capital sum to enable the initial phase of the small units to be built.
The Board asked that before seeking a partner with which to create a joint venture an attempt should be made to identify an anchor tenant for the land sale option. A marketing campaign was put in place which was aimed at all UK based companies that were aligned to the University’s strengths in chemical and process engineering, toxicology and pharmaceuticals.
This campaign identified the UK company, BOC Ltd (now BOC Linde) which acquired a long leasehold, in 1983, on a 10.25 ac (4.25 ha) for £2.5 million on which to base their UK HQ and R&D management activities. This transaction was sufficient to set out an initial phase of infrastructure and enable the first phase of buildings without the University taking a partner. All subsequent funding of buildings by the University Development Team has been based on loan finance from a number of banks and these loans have been secured against the income stream from let buildings.
The Park has been developed in phases following the initial sale of land to its anchor tenant BOC. These subsequent phases of development were undertaken by the University on a speculative basis. The plan has been cautious and the University has not over built at any one time which has ensured high occupancy (averaging over 90%).5
This careful approach has been helped by the early development of the Surrey Technology Centre. This business
Details of responsibilities for costs, management control and involvement in tenant selection for single and joint venture ownership arrangements
incubator has been instrumental in helping some 500 startups companies of which some, if they have not acquired by larger companies, have grown on site using the Research Park’s flexible leases to “staircase” their way to quite large and suitable accommodation on the site.
The Research Park Management team is located on the Park. It comprises a core management group that is responsible for the overall planning, development and management of the site. The work streams of this group include: dealing with the estate from the perspective of the initial development, finding occupiers and then managing the estate. A second stream of work is concerned with providing the business development service package and links with the University of Surrey’s Research and Enterprise Services.
In the UK there has been no formal government support for science and technology parks. To provide the various support packages Park operators have had to rely on building partnerships with those organisations that have from time to time been in place to support general UK businesses. These include the now defunct government funded Business Link programme as well as more specialist government funded group such as the Surrey Enterprise Hub,6 and the Innovation and Growth team programme for the same area both of which programmes have been cut because of a change in government policy related to providing government support to business. The two latter programmes had their management teams based on the Surrey Research Park and were respectively concerned with helping high growth companies through a coaching and mentoring process and connecting micro, small, medium, large and multinational companies in order to encourage innovation in the region’s business community. These programmes proved to be highly effective and their closure was politically motivated following a change of government in May 2010.
In 1997 the UK government formally extended the responsibilities of all universities to extend beyond teaching and research to include business and community development. Grant funding has been made available to all universities to support this initiative. The University’s Surrey Research Park Office in collaboration with the University’s technology commercialisation office (Research and Enterprise Services) have secured a government grant from the Higher Education Innovation Fund to create a small pre-incubator, known as SET Squared,7 in the Park’s existing Surrey Technology Centre. In 2011 the University secured a further grant with which to develop a space technology incubator known as the International Space Innovation Centre.8
5 University of Surrey Annual Accounts of the Foundation Fund.
6 http://www3.surrey.ac.uk/stc/sehub.html
7 http://setsquared.co.uk/
8 http://isic-space.com/
4. MEASURES OF SUCCESS AGAINST THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES
The performance of science and technology parks is a topic which is of great interest to politicians because many of these projects are publicly funded and compete for public funding and in some instances for the land that is necessary for their development. Although the University of Surrey was not exposed to this political scrutiny there has been concern over time to assess the performance of the Park. In 1996 some broad qualitative and quantitative measures were developed for the measurement of the performance of the Surrey Research Park against its original five objectives of income generation, technology transfer (now better described as knowledge transfer), profile, economic development, and supporting companies on the site in order to help to give them a competitive advantage. This system is still being utilised today to review progress.
Evidence of this is shown by the presence on the Surrey Research Park over 19 years of the Mitsubishi Research Centre and for research centres for Kobe Steel, Canon and Hygiena International. The initial Master Plan for the site enabled the Park to develop sites as phases. This flexibility has proved to be important feature of the site.
Capital value and rental income for the University: The developed area of the park has been values as a property asset at £80 million (2006).9 The rental income generated for the University of Surrey over the period of the development is noted in the Fig. 9.
This rental income has generated surpluses for the University of in excess of £65 millions which have been used to support scholarship and the Park’s capital value has enabled the University to use this as collateral for borrowings to support the development of the University.
The University of Surrey is a relatively small university with just over 13,500 full time equivalent students10 which in terms of international comparisons is a relatively small university. However, in addition to the quality of its courses the University has become well known through the success of the Surrey Research Park and its impact in terms of economic development and from the formation and growth of its satellite business, SSTL, which is now located on the Park.
The success of the Surrey Research Park and the SET Squared operation also attracted a grant of £0.96 million to support an International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) which is a sector specific pre incubator.13 This also operates from the Surrey Technology Centre. The objective for the ISIC is to support the development of companies that have a focus on space related technologies which also include remote sensing applications by drawing together academic research partners, international businesses and SMEs into a ‘cluster,’ stimulating an entrepreneurial environment for uniting the upstream and downstream space industry.
Links with business: the University’s long tradition of supporting business and industry through its research activities, its record for graduate employment14 by creating a pool of well qualified and readily employable people. The University’s industry and business facing philosophy has been an important as this has helped the Park’s development team to promote the Park as a good location for accessing skills and technology.
One of the most difficult objectives to measure with any success is the level of knowledge transfer to companies on the site. Initial measures were concerned with the transfer of technology from the University to companies on the Park; however, experience has shown that a number of the companies on the site have based their business on technology that has been licensed from other sources such as research hospitals, defence laboratories, corporate research laboratories, and by developing business ideas from their own technology consultancy activities. This broader reach of companies seeking technology and the wider scope of knowledge transfer has increased the potential impact from this objective.
Funded through the University’s Research and Enterprise Unit with Higher Innovation Fund (HEIF) money the University runs pre-incubators (SET Squared and ISIC) which have created pathways for entrepreneurs looking to develop their ideas into commercial enterprise.
In addition to knowledge transfer from the University to business there are a number of other examples of knowledge transfer from other “discovery” organisations in the region into successful technology companies. Examples of these are set out in the table 4.
The government’s Research Assessment Exercise has been replaced by the Research Excellence Framework. To improve its level of excellence the University of Surrey established a research strategy in 2011 which runs to 2017(University of Surrey 2011). The strategic decision has been made to improve the ranking of the University in the Academic Ranking of World Universities19 (ARWU), which provides an annual global research ranking.
The fit of technical subject in the University of Surrey with the interests of tenant companies is high. This was not a deliberate policy but has been important in driving success.
Examples of companies on the Surrey Research Park which have been founded on technology from centres in the region
The University of Surrey has put in place the necessary management structures in its Research and Enterprise Services which support links with tenant companies.
Commonly used indices of the economic impact of companies on science and technology parks include a change in the number of companies on a park, numbers of employees, the nature of the activities of the employees, salary levels and turnover per employee.
The growth of tenant companies on the Park is shown in Fig. 10. This includes some companies that have technology based subsidiaries operating from the site and those in the pre-incubation programme with SET Squared and the ISIC pre-incubators.
Tracking companies over time has proved to be difficult because many companies are acquired by larger companies or competitors in their sector. In this process they lose their identities very quickly.
A number of the original occupiers of new buildings constructed on the Park remain and have renewed their occupancy contracts. This demonstrates that the companies are stable and that they are able to secure the skills that are necessary to continue to develop their business.
It is estimated that, based on the collective turnover of the companies on Park, their “spend” in the region and the multiplier effect on this spend figures, they contribute in between £350 million to £450 million annually to the region’s economy.
The success factors for the Surrey Research Park are based around the location, the offering to tenant companies, the package of business support services offered to occupiers and the attitude to supporting micro and SMEs, of the University that is reflected through the management of the site.
A study by the now closed Regional Development Agency for South East England (SEEDA) noted that the region in which the Surrey Research Park is situated conforms to its designation of an “knowledge heartland economies,” in which all the elements and linkages in the sub-regional economy model(SEEDA and Huggins 2001) (Fig. 11) were fully established and working well. Evidence from the UKSPA(2003) study showed that Parks in these location were more likely to succeed than those parks in areas which that have “developing knowledge economies” where most elements and linkages are already established; however, some pathways or capacity restrictions hinder the connections, and those areas denoted as “economic development priority areas” where all major elements and/or pathways between the various levels in the model were missing or constrained.
The Surrey Research Park operates in a business environment in which there is substantial “knowledge capital” which provide the capacity to create new ideas. Those organisations that contribute to this include universities, public sector research organisations, and private R&D organisations such as corporate research laboratories and contract research organisations.
The County of Surrey has over 250 major corporate HQs that operate from the County.24 Data from 2001 showed that the region in which the Park operates has the highest R&D spend which when associated with the level of connections gives some indication of a potential success factor for the site.
The region also contains substantial innovation capacity if measured by on the five pillars that have been used by Lopez-Claros and Mata(2011) for analysis of this capacity. This system weights the following in its measure: the institutional environment; human capital, training and social inclu-
[Table 5.] Percentage of R&D expenditurein the UK per region(Year 2001)
Percentage of R&D expenditurein the UK per region(Year 2001)
sion; regulatory and legal framework; research and development; and the adoption and use of information and communication technologies. The UK also benefits from having a political regime which is classified as a full democracy as opposed to others which include flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes within which there is likely to be diminishing innovation performance.
Knowledge based economic outcomes (Fig. 11) represents the warrantable products and services that are delivered successfully to market. There is no specific data on these outputs for the companies on the Surrey Research Park; however, the rate of growth of companies on the site is an indicator that they are successful. The “gateway policy” for companies coming onto the site, which limits activities to research, development and design in science (including social science), technology and engineering also helps to narrow the likely outcomes to those that contain some proprietary elements.
The final two pathways in the model noted in Fig. 11, which denote feedback loop, if successful, result in re-investment in “knowledge capital” and “innovation capacity” that in turn leads to a “virtuous circle” of success. It is clear from the experience of the Surrey Research Park that many of the entrepreneurs that build and then “exit” from their companies return to the park as serial entrepreneurs and create further new companies. The presence of a science park as a physical asset and focal point for this process helps to build local technology entrepreneurship capacity.
The location of Park on the campus of the University of Surrey in Guildford, which is part of an economic heartland region, has helped attract the right type of tenants which are in high technology businesses with good quality of products and services with strong opportunity for growth and development in global markets. This is further supported by the marketing regime adopted by the Park in relation to the promotion of the services it offers business, its location in terms of the economy and the quality of international air communications which enable companies to link with international markets, and the focus on technology companies that are working on innovation.
Over time the success of the regime of supporting pre and full incubation and grow-on space on the Park has supported a number of companies which have been successful in developing technologies which have then been acquired by large corporations. Examples include the acquisition of Bullfrog by Electronic Arts in 1994 and then the further acquisition of Criterion Software.
The Surrey region is overall an attractive location and appears to have a well qualified workforce. The most recent available National Census data for 200125 reveals Surrey’s residents as highly qualified. In 2001, 27.2% of 16 to 74 year olds (209,100 people) had a degree or diploma (level 4/5) qualification, compared with 21.7% in the South East and 19.9% in England. The trend is also the same younger age groups with 10.1% of Surrey’s over 16 year olds are qualified at level 3 (2 or more A levels) compared with 8.3% nationally and 21.6% of 16 ? 74 year olds in Surrey are qualified at level 2 (5 or more GCSEs at grade A to C) compared with the England average of 19.4% qualified at this level.
The statistics also showed that there were 28,763 full time students (aged over 18) living in Surrey in 2001. Guildford had 7,004 students (9.6% of its 16 - 74 population) and Runnymede had 5,731 students (11.8%). 4.3% of England’s 16- 74 year olds are students, compared with only 3.7% in Surrey. This suggests that many Surrey 18 year olds go to universities elsewhere in the UK.
The performance of companies on the Park is best demonstrated through case studies of some of the high growth companies on the site.
The range of high growth companies that have developed on the site include technology consultancies, companies that have licensed technology from government laboratories, companies that have developed their own intellectual property, companies that have taken advantage of new technology platforms such as low cost and high storage computing power as well as R&D teams working as small specialist parts of large corporations which themselves have spun out companies that have had an economic impact.
There have been three spin-outs from Detica of which the fastest growing is the privately owned company Actica which has achieved a turnover per employee of three quarters of a million per employee. The ability for the company to find, recruit and retain the best staff because of the location of the site, the flexibility of the University as a landlord that at one time made a loan of £250,000 to the company to assist with trading and the quality of its management are all important in this company’s progress.
There are many other examples of companies that have achieved significant growth. The majority of these have been involved in new commercialising technologies such as stem cells, bio-fuels, internet protocol security, ICT for security systems, building Satellites, as well as some patents for the health care sector.
To help European based industry maintain its competitive edge through fostering innovation ? success factors
The market led approach of providing appropriate accommodation and grow-on space for start up companies has provided a valuable opportunity to these companies to become established. The range includes pre and full incubation as well as space in which to grow companies. The approach of using short term contracts has helped companies that are fast growing to make the necessary moves to adjust their space to their needs.
The presence of the Surrey Technology Centre business incubators since 1986 and more recently since 2004 the presence of the SET Squared pre incubator have supported the development of a number of technology entrepreneurs which together have helped to raise the levels of competence in technology entrepreneurship. The employment of an entrepreneur in residence and the operation of an Angel Finance Club are both valuable contributors to the growth of more technical companies.
The support of companies in emerging technologies and promoting these has helped to create clusters of companies involved in new innovative fields. An example is the emergence in Guildford of a cluster of computer games companies that are among the world’s leaders.
The companies on the Park have been surveyed and there is a high level of awareness of the capabilities of the University of Surrey and the availability of technology services to companies when required.
9 University of Surrey Foundation Fund Annual Report 2010- 2011
10 http://portal.surrey.ac.uk/portal/page?_pageid=719,333086&_dad=portal&schema=PORTAL
11 Data from the Surrey Research Park tenant occupancy records.
12 http://www.setsquared.co.uk/home/contact-us/surrey-guildford
13 http://www.isic-surrey.co.uk/
14 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8138447/Best-and-worst-universities-for-graduate-jobs.html
15 Perse Comm. Director of the Surrey Research Park 2012 after analysis of the contracts for occupation.
16 SSTL 2011 published accounts.
17 http://www.ktponline.org.uk/
18 http://www.surrey.ac.uk/research/rae/
19 Commonly known as the Shanghai Jiao Tong Index.
20 Data from a sample of accounts of companies on the Surrey Research Park.
21 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_264246.pdf
22 UKSPA 2002 The evaluation of the past & future economic contribution of the UK Science Park Movement.
23 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/bus-register/business-demography/2010/stb---business-demography-2010.html#tab-Business-survivals
24 Perse Comm Surrey County Council Data 2012.
25 http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/environment-housing-and-planning/surrey-data-online/2001-census/2001-census-qualifications-and-students
The Surrey Research Park was first promoted in 1981 in the tradition of the University of Surrey and pre-cursor institutions which had historically worked closely with industry and business since 1896.
Careful definition of the objectives for the Surrey Research Park project provided a valuable framework for developing the master plan, funding, governance and then operational model.
Critical to the Park’s success from the University of Surrey’s perspective was the successful raising of the initial capital through a land transaction. This enabled the University to control the development of the site and letting policy.
The objectives defined for the 3 stakeholders which respectively relate to economic development, competitive advantage of tenant companies, knowledge transfer, profile for the University and the capacity to generate income have been critically important in guiding the development; however, their value is diminished without defining success indicators that drive performance and understanding and trying to develop the success factors that assist with achieving a good performance.
The Surrey Research Park defined these parameters in the 1990s as a way of measuring performance of the Park.
The lesson to be learnt from the project is that it has always had a clear set of objectives, supportive management throughout the University and the University of Surrey has undertaken the development of the project from a commercial perspective with a very business like response to the market. It is important to ensure that the academic priorities of a host university are taken into account in a development but do not stifle the enterprise and the market because without the support of the academic infrastructure the foundations for the project cannot be sustained.
The result of adopting a commercial approach to the planning, development and operation of the Park has meant that it has had a significant impact on the economic development of the region in which it is located.