A high-profile business delegation from Northern Ireland has visited the Bristol & Bath Science Park to find out more about its success in fostering innovation.
The visitors, from the Northern Ireland Science Park and Government advisors, were interested learning how the park at Emersons Green had factored in the design of its first buildings for early-stage companies and industry and academic collaborations.
The visitors also met key industry partners of the National Composites Centre to understand how they approached the same challenge with established multinational corporations.
The Northern Ireland Science Park is planning to open a similar ‘open innovation institute’ and wanted to get an insight into the recent developments in Bristol.
The delegation was particularly keen to find out how careful design of physical spaces, both inside and outdoors, can create a culture of open innovation and what else can to be done to encourage science and technology businesses to collaborate.
Bristol & Bath Science Park chief executive Bonnie Dean said: “In the true spirit of open innovation, we are more than happy to share our learning with other science parks nationally and internationally and I am sure we have much to discover ourselves as we develop out the park here.
“The Northern Ireland Science Park is very successful in its own right and the new open innovation institute is an exciting new phase in its development. They have an opportunity to benchmark on a global basis and we are delighted that the Bristol & Bath Science Park is one of the locations they selected to visit.”
As well as serviced office space, high bandwidth, excellent communications and conference facilities, Bristol & Bath Science Park tenants have the use of The Forum, a striking glass-fronted communal area, available for networking and food and refreshments, which is also open to the public and other businesses.
Only seven months after opening, the park is already home to 18 businesses and recent tenant surveys show the opportunities for collaboration created at the park are one of the aspects they most value.
The Northern Irish visit came as the Bristol & Bath Science Park scooped a second national award for engineering excellence for its infrastructure, following being named recently as the region’s Best Commercial Workplace in the prestigious British Council of Offices Awards.
