We create the amazing ecosystems required to deliver social and economic growth

When the Covid 19 Pandemic broke, HOP was already working with the Universities and Industry Consortium of the UK Vaccines Manufacturing & Innovation Centre and we also knew the HM Government Departmental Sponsor, BEIS, plus Department of Health, Cabinet Office etc. In the first fortnight of the pandemic we proposed a major budget increase and the mobilisation of the project early, using National Emergency Powers. The project is now well ahead of programme and the Centre will be capable of full national scale supply of vaccines doses, to fight Covid 19 and other future threats. When you know the right people you can move fast, collectively solve problems and have major positive impact.

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HOP has actively supported the award winning UK SME: Oxford Space Systems - providing accommodation and also business support via shared events, media promotion packages on a complimentary basis, press briefings etc. HOP has also been part of the concierge service via the Harwell Space Cluster that has enabled OSS to formally partner on product development with major multinational members of the Cluster such as Thales Alenia Space and Airbus. “A local hero company going global.”

We have been coinvested in a partnership with HM Government for over 6 years. We co-developed and committed ourselves to the Vision for Harwell and also the Campus Strategy. Listening to, guiding and being simpatico with Government is something that we have done successfully – largely because we share important values and objectives. These include: sustainable growth, holistic positive effects (i.e. broader socio-economic outcomes not just profit), long term investment horizons, a capacity to compromise and to share control and success. HM Government has committed over £750m more of R&D investment to Harwell because we have jointly succeeded in sponsoring and growing this Triple Helix exemplar.

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It is easier to build powerful clusters around core, rare research infrastructure – e.g. national scale labs. However, having the labs is not enough. The best people need to using the labs and infrastructure, ideally intensively and to address multiple challenges simultaneously. That drives creative problem solving and also secures best value for money from tax payer investment. Open source and open collaboration national laboratories, such as those inside the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (which HOP has partnered with) operate in just this way. That does not mean that “anyone can get in”. In fact demand from the academic and industry community is so great from UK and all around the World that a “peer group review” access protocol keeps the bar for access especially high. This “peer group” competition actually serves to attract the best people and thereby further accelerates problem solving and the science and innovation process.

Ernest Rutherford is often quoted as follows: “We haven’t got the money, so we’ll have to think.” This is a consistent refrain of the frustrated research fellow or exciting new tech company. However, worldwide and societally it is now apparent that whilst money is one source of fuel for science and innovation, with talent the other principal one – the World’s overall natural resources are now stretched beyond anything previously witnessed, as a consequence of human population growth and consumption.

Sustainable innovation, production and consumption are essential to balance human and planetary needs. Those teams and communities who innovate sustainably and for a sustainable future will be the ones who secure more trust and investment, deliver more adoptable technologies worldwide and also generate the greatest profits.

HOP already actively supports teams like these.

Sustainable innovation for a future that is sustainable for humankind and Planet Earth is paramount. The human species has been living permanently in space on board the International Space Station for over 15 years, but this Planet will be our Home for many generations more. Humans are creating techological solutions for the pressures that we are self generating for ourselves and also applying to other species. Global warming and also the increasing prevalence of new human health challenges implies that our technological advances are not keeping pace with demand and need (both our own and the wider Planet’s). The difficult Covid 19 moment will accelerate existing trends and embed structural changes in our societies and economies.

During this Twenty-first Century we will change: our healthcare research and delivery infrastructure, our travel patterns, our working patterns, how we generate and consume energy, likewise food, how we educate our children and also our adult selves during our changing careers, how we creep out into space increasingly regularly and for longer journeys, how we exploit the assets and wonders of space, plus how we care for Planet Earth in the interests of other species and future generations of humans.

Harwell Oxford Partners is interested in all of these things and we will continue to make it our business to support the cleverest, most optimistic, inventive, energetic and hard-working people in the World.