9th June 2008

The hugely successful bioscience campus in Pennyfoot Street, nominated by an independent panel as a finalist in the Government’s Enterprising Britain 2008 competition, will face the national judges in Nottingham on Wednesday 18 June.

Backing BioCity to win the coveted national title are Nottingham’s city leaders, entrepreneurs and Eastside’s local community. Since 2002 £13 million has been invested by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda), European funds and BioCity in building and land redevelopment and BioCity has supported over 60 high-growth companies which in turn have created nearly 500 new jobs.

“BioCity is a strong part of our vibrant commercial centre,” says Mich Stevenson, Chairman of Nottingham Waterside.

“People are beginning to recognise that Nottingham is an important location for the bioscience sector and the expansion of BioCity into the R4 building is further testament to the comprehensive facilities we now have on offer. From my own personal perspective, BioCity provides a crucial physical link between the Riverside Regeneration projects and our city centre.”

Former TV Dragon Rachel Elnaugh, now based in Derbyshire, helped to choose BioCity for the national final: “BioCity is a fantastic example of not only how we can encourage enterprise in a key industry sector, but also how a community-based site can help businesses share resources to thrive and grow. The exciting thing for me is that the BioCity template could be replicated elsewhere in the UK across a variety of high growth sectors to transform the way we encourage enterprise in this country."

Local garage owner Adam Skinner of ACE Autoservices added: “Since they occupied their original site in Pennyfoot Street we have watched BioCity grow and go from strength to strength. They changed the old Boots building that was becoming derelict, into a work of art which can only be good for the community at large. Our company has reaped the rewards of having a prestige company in our area and I am glad to say that numbers of their employees have chosen us as their preferred garage to service and repair their vehicles. I feel that having a prestige company of BioCity’s stature locally can only be good for us and the area at large”.

Andrew Morgan, Skills and Communities Director at emda - which is backing BioCity’s campaign - commented: “BioCity is a terrific example of a world class innovation and incubation facility in the East Midlands and it is widely recognised as a centre of excellence in the biosciences sector. We’re confident that BioCity has great potential to go far in this competition, since the organisation’s whole ethos really captures the spirit of enterprise through its community of scientists, entrepreneurs and academics who share their expertise and provide support and advice to each other.”
BioCity was launched five years ago as a collaborative venture involving Nottingham’s two universities and emda after the closure in 2001 of a large BASF research facility in the centre of Nottingham resulting in the loss of around 450 jobs.

Based in the middle of a regeneration zone, on the edge of the St Anns and Sneinton districts - two of the most deprived areas in the city - BioCity provides a highly supportive environment for early stage bioscience businesses and retains the fruits of the city’s higher educational establishments as well as supporting the regeneration of the local area.

On Wednesday 18th June, members of the national judging panel - including Sue Brownson, MD of Blue Bell BMW and representatives from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) – will visit BioCity to assess their bid.

The national winner will be announced in October, and will then go forward to represent the UK at the European Enterprise awards in May 2009. This is a great opportunity for the East Midlands to build on its success as a 2005 national Enterprising Britain winner and stand out as an enterprise hotspot both in the UK and across Europe.

Ends

Press representatives are invited to attend on 18th June when the national judges and BioCity representatives will be available for interview.

Media enquiries: Louise Third, Integra Communications:
(Tel) 0115 906 1377 (Mob) 07773 288342 (E) louise@integra.gb.com
Photography available.

Notes to Editors:

About BioCity Nottingham

BioCity Nottingham Ltd was formed in October 2002. The company develops and operates bioscience and healthcare related incubation and innovation facilities. The first facility was opened in Nottingham in September 2003 and Phase 3, in the form of grow-on space, will open later this year. BioCity Nottingham is currently home to 35 on-site businesses, 17 virtual tenants (4 of which are foreign) and 3 companies benefiting from the Germinator.

BioCity was founded by Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham and East Midlands Development Agency. The site the company is developing in Nottingham was originally gifted to Nottingham Trent University by BASF plc.

About the Enterprising Britain competition

• Enterprising Britain is run by Make Your Mark on behalf of the Department for Business Enterprise Regulatory Reform (BERR), and in partnership with the East Midlands Development Agency (emda). For more information please visit www.enterprisingbritain.org.uk
• Enterprising Britain is a nationwide competition that celebrates and recognises enterprise achievement throughout all the regions of the UK; those places of enterprise excellence that have helped transform the social and economic fortunes of their area
• Enterprising Britain is open to all places (in the UK) that can demonstrate how they have transformed the community through enterprise in the last two years. All entrants must represent an identifiable geographic area, such as a town, a city, a parish or neighborhood and be able to demonstrate that enterprise is central to the economic and or social transformation of the place.
• The competition runs nationally across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and operates in two stages: a regional nomination stage and a national competition between the regional finalists.
• The regional heats for the competition run from 18th February 2008 to 31st May 2008. The 12 regional winners will be visited by members of the judging panel over the summer.
• The Enterprising Britain 2007 winner was North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone (www.nsrz.org) and the runner-up was The Paper Trail www.thepapertrail.org.uk
• The Enterprising Britain 2006 winner was West Kilbride Craft & Design Town. For more information go to www.westkilbride.org.uk
• The Enterprising Britain 2005 winner was Sherwood Energy Village, Ollerton. For more information go to www.sherwoodenergyvillage.co.uk
• The overall winner and runner-up of Enterprising Britain 2007 were entered into a Europe-wide competition – the ‘European Enterprise Awards.’
  http://www.european-enterprise-awards.org/
• The European Enterprise Awards are inspired by the Enterprising Britain Competition, and aim to reward local and regional initiatives that are improving business prospects. The Awards are open to the 25 Member States of the European Union as well as Bulgaria, Iceland, Norway, Romania and Turkey

About emda

• East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England, set up in 1999 to bring a regional focus to economic development.
• Working in partnership with public, private and voluntary organisations the aim is to deliver the 2006 Regional Economic Strategy (RES) ‘A Flourishing Region’, which sets out regional priorities until 2020.
• The RES, coordinated by emda, highlights the themes of productivity, sustainability and equality and builds on the previous two strategies; ‘Prosperity Through People’ and ‘Destination 2010’.
• In early 2007 the National Audit Office announced emda had received the highest possible grade of 'performing strongly' in an independent assessment of our work - scoring 22 out of 24.
• For more details visit www.emda.org.uk