£14m Bright Building innovation hub is launched
The launch of the £14m Bright Building – the first new-build on Manchester Science Park for more than 15 years– has taken place with a glitzy opening ceremony yesterday (Thursday, September 21).
As the chief executive of Manchester Science Partnerships, Rowena Burns, hailed the official opening as the “fulfilment of promise” Ricardo, a global automotive engineering consultancy was unveiled as a tenant which has taken 4,530sq ft of the total 70,000sq ft to house its water and environment practice.
The new “heart of the Park”, it will be a central hub for the growing collective of scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs who make up the MSP community with more than 170 businesses across the Manchester Science Park and Citylabs campuses, providing the physical infrastructure to support the intellectual connectivity and networks that are essential for business growth.
Developed for MSP by majority shareholder Bruntwood, it is the first of two landmark developments in the city for the digital sector – the second being the Manchester Technology Centre in the £750m Circle Square neighbourhood, which is set to transform Oxford Road.
MSP said the Bright Building will be the new nerve centre for the region’s digital technology sector, which contributes GVA £3.1bn to Manchester’s economy and is home to Mi-IDEA which also launched yesterday.
A collaboration between MSP and technology company Cisco, Mi-IDEA is a new post-accelerator centre to support start-ups to scale and to provide a space for co-innovation in the region.
Neither a co-working space or traditional accelerator, Mi-IDEA will help start-ups flourish and scale, and be a catalyst for co-innovation with businesses, academia and government. It gives start-ups the space and support to grow – on their terms – without restrictions and a demand for equity.
Bright will also serve as the centre of operations and demonstrator for CityVerve: Innovate UK’s Internet of Things city demonstrator, in which MSP is a lead partner.
Burns said: “The opening of the Bright Building marks the fulfilment of a promise we made four years ago: to create a place which celebrates the brilliant work of the science and technology businesses which have made their homes with us at MSP.
“The Bright Building sits at the heart of MSP’s original Science Park, part of the city’s Oxford Road innovation district and its richly diverse residential community.
“We want the Bright Building to become known as a place which is open to everyone who is curious about the power of science and technology to change lives.
“Initiatives like Mi-IDEA and CityVerve have at their heart the principle of open innovation. In Bright we hope that we have created a building which will play its own part in supporting Manchester’s next generation of innovators and brilliant businesses.”
She said the Bright Building creation also marked an important strategic milestone in the development plan to grow MSP’s city centre estate to one million sq ft, with the facility providing a focal point around which the wider Oxford Road Corridor innovation district can flourish.
This latest news follows the recent announcement that NorthWest EHealth Limited, the world leading, fast-growth data platform specialist, which provided the software for pharma giant GSK’s pioneering Salford Lung Study in 2016, agreed a deal to take 12,000 sq ft in the Bright Building, having outgrown its current base at MSP’s Citylabs Campus.
Part-funded by the North West Evergreen Fund (backed by the European Regional Development Fund), and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the Bright Building is located within the Corridor Manchester Enterprise Zone, which provides significant financial benefits for businesses looking to locate there. Businesses moving to the Bright Building before March 31, 2021 may be eligible for a total of £275,000 in business rates relief over a period of five years.
