LET’S DRIVE A KENDALL SQUARE VIBE IN OXFORDSHIRE

Sarah Haywood Price, the new Managing Director of Advanced Oxford, wants to drive the Oxford region higher up the global rankings for its scientific and technical capabilities, mirroring the thriving Kendall Square life science community in the USA.

Sarah took on the new role at Advanced Oxford this summer to spearhead the membership organisation in developing and promoting Oxfordshire’s huge potential as a global hub for science and innovation.

Her move to Oxford comes after spending five years leading MedCity, which supports the world-leading life sciences ecosystem across the South East, where she remains an executive director.

Now she’s charged with doing the same for Oxfordshire.

Kendall Square, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is known for being probably the world’s pre-eminent life science cluster. It’s not as small as it might sound, covering an area of around 200 square miles, but it does present an iconic central point of focus for the cluster.

“Significant investment has been made by Massachusetts’ state government in creating the right environment for the world’s most successful pharmaceutical companies to locate some of their research and development activity in the area,” she said.

“It has all the ingredients of success for the life sciences sector: a strong network of commercially-minded academics, investors, academic institutions and businesses. We can do the same in Oxford for the broader sector of scientific and technology companies that Advanced Oxford represents.”

And there is a lot to celebrate in the Oxford region. “We have active investors, very successful science and technology companies, exciting younger businesses keen to scale up and some of the country’s most successful biotech companies,” she said.

“Like Kendall Square, the Oxford region has all the components for success. We want to make collaboration easier and more efficient, to promote the richness of Oxfordshire’s industrial space in order to attract skilled people, and drive further investment into the businesses already here.”

MedCity provided a “front door” for smaller companies which wanted to grow but didn’t know where to go for help, and Sarah wants the same for Advanced Oxford.

“MedCity supports companies by understanding their needs and issues, introducing them to the people, places and capabilities to help them. I want the same for Advanced Oxford, as well as it being the voice for the science and technology community in the region.”

Oxford already has a great physical infrastructure.

This includes world-leading science parks such as Begbroke and Milton Park, alongside campuses such as Culham and Harwell, which hosts national science infrastructure such as Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron and The Rosalind Franklin Institute, alongside a strong on-site science eco-system.

Another centre for excellence is the area around the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals, the recently opened Oxford BioEscalator, a hub for new and development life science innovations, and Oxford Brookes University.

These four sites are within a 15-minute walk from each other.

“We want all these sites to become connected, to help those working there feel that they can move easily and frequently between them,” added Sarah.