Now and again, start-ups in the IT and Tech industry will set up new branches or headquarters across the world. When this occurs, we can undoubtedly expect increases in the technological advancement of the area, through innovation. In this blog, we’ll discuss the future plans of an innovation cluster in Birmingham that aims to accelerate tech growth in the region.
The Birmingham Innovation Cluster itself
The project called the Birmingham Innovation Quarter, is a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech, Aston University and Birmingham City Council.
The 20-hectare site will sit within the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter and is aiming to become a technology and health innovation hub.
Here’s an image of the health innovation hub, as a reference for how the future cluster may look:
Source: Bruntwood SciTech
Professor Aleks Subic, vice-chancellor and chief executive of Aston University, said: “Birmingham Innovation Quarter represents an innovation ecosystem that will co-locate industry, business, entrepreneurs and start-up founders together with staff and students from academia, bringing cutting-edge digital research into a range of sectors – most critically the health tech sector.”
The site will contain science and tech commercial offices, residential spaces, student housing, hospitality, teaching and research buildings.
What is the purpose of this Birmingham innovation cluster?
These plans were a part of the pledge made by Chris Oglesby, Bruntwood SciTech’s Executive Chair and Bruntwood Chief Executive.
The pledge in question was to invest £1bn in the West Midlands over the next decade. The partnership will draw on Bruntwood SciTech’s expertise in developing an £850m portfolio of regional innovation districts across the UK.
In the past five years, Bruntwood SciTech – a joint venture partnership between Bruntwood and Legal & General, has already committed more than £30m of investment into Innovation Birmingham, which sits immediately adjacent to Aston University, serving as the West Midlands’ largest digital and tech hub.
What does this mean for us?
It comes amid strong tech growth for Birmingham and the wider West Midlands ecosystem. In 2021, the West Midlands was crowned the fastest-growing tech sector and in 2022 the ecosystem was valued at £15.3bn.
UKTN’s latest regional report found that 85% of tech company decision-makers said the West Midlands is currently a good place to start and grow their business.
Bruntwood SciTech, a joint venture partnership between Bruntwood and Legal & General, is an active property developer in the UK tech sector. It has previously redeveloped a life science lab in Macclesfield, a £21m tech hub at Manchester Science Park and is working on offices in Glasgow.
Conclusion
At this point in global technology advancement, the UK must appear attractive for tech industries to open and invest.
Whilst there hasn’t been any proof of how successful the future innovation cluster will be, this is still just the kind of step that could help further accelerate Birmingham’s technology innovations and the UK as a whole.
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