Incubation centre has Aura of success

Client: BioCity Nottingham

BioCity Nottingham was born out of a major collaboration between two leading Midlands universities and the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).

Opened in September 2003 by Lord Sainsbury, the Minister for Science and Innovation, BioCity offers 12,000 sq m of office space and state-of-the-art laboratories for scientists and entrepreneurs working at the forefront of bioscience development and commercialisation.

Initial funding for the ambitious city-centre complex was achieved thanks to strong support from regional organisations and prominent figures in the community, including the vice-chancellors of the two Nottingham universities.

Building from scratch would have required at least a £25 million investment. But a decision by BASF to donate its R&D facility in Nottingham's Pennyfoot Street to Nottingham Trent University reduced costs to a fraction of that.

Today, the ground breaking healthcare and bioscience innovation centre is helping to build on the region's strong bioscience foundations to create a major cluster in the sector and is acknowledged as being on course to become a European flagship for the biotech sector.

Heading up the BioCity team is Chief Executive Dr. Glenn Crocker, who joined the organisation from Ernst & Young where he was head of UK biotechnology practices and spokesman on life sciences in the UK.

AURA PR was commissioned as public relations adviser to the centre after successfully producing the first BioCity e-zine, which outlined the evolution of the centre and highlighted some of its key early success stories for a regional, national and international readership of bioscience subscribers.

Over a period of months, AURA PR managed a flow of local, regional and specialist news and technical articles highlighting the growth of the centre and the individual achievements of its tenant companies. This included announcements of a succession of new tenants - from the transfer of the NHS transfer team, the organisation responsible for developing innovative ideas and products from the NHS to the arrival of Trudell, a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of asthma products which set up its European base in BioCity.

AURA PR oversaw the unveiling of a new bioscience business support network based at the centre and broke the news of major investment successes from a number of BioCity tenants. This has resulted in over £3.7 million investment to date for the region's biotech industry. Coverage includes the Nottingham Evening Post, Manufacturing Chemist, Business Finance East Midlands, Business and Finance Midlands, Network Nottingham, Investment Now, Midlands Business Insider and Nottingham University publications.

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