Developments

With ‘Silicon Fen’ entrepreneurs close at hand and the University of Cambridge  providing world-class talent, the city’s well-established tech community continues to thrive. Combined growth in Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire has accelerated in the past year.

• Britain’s first underground railway to be built in decades, will run trains into the heart of Cambridge. The Isaac Newton Line is expected to start operations by 2025. However, infrastructure relief has also been provided in the short term with the Cambridge North railway station which opened in May 2017 to provide much needed transport to the Cambridge Science Park. A third station is expected to start serving the booming Cambridge Biomedical Campus in 2021.

• The Bradfield Centre, which opened in 2017, is thriving. More than 200 entrepreneurs are now based at the co-working centre at the Cambridge Science Park. Its state-of-the-art technology centre provides a dynamic environment in which science and tech entrepreneurs can learn from each other and translate research into commercial applications. The Maxwell Centre is another space for industry liaison with Cambridge University, building on the success of the Hauser Forum and three ideaSpace locations.

• The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review (CPIER) is assessing the case for greater fiscal devolution which will unlock the delivery of major infrastructure to the region. CIPER launched in January 2018 with the aim of helping local stakeholders unite behind a common strategy and providing a clear understanding of how the region delivers benefits to the rest of the UK. CPIER released an interim report in May 2018, which raised several important questions about the economic future of the region including ways to maintain the ecosystem’s unique character to help the region stay ahead of other global tech hubs.