Bristol’s innovation centre for scientific enterprise opened today – allowing the city to effectively compete for the first time against cities such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Unit DX, pictured, will encourage cutting-edge science and tech start-ups with the kind of high-end laboratory space and support facilities common in the US and a small number of research-focused UK universities. 
The UK’s only privately-funded science incubator, it will accommodate up to 100 scientists and engineers in a 15,000 sq ft former industrial unit in St Philips.
Individual lab benches as well as private laboratories will be available for hire by start-ups and industrial research and development teams.
Unit DX takes inspiration from Silicon Valley by providing science and tech start-ups on-site access to instrumentation, technicians and a network of business and technical support.
It has been established in partnership with the SETsquared business incubator network and Invest Bristol and Bath – the city-region’s inward investment agency.
While Bristol boasts a strong ‘ecosystem’ for start-ups and growing businesses in key sectors such as tech, digital, creative and renewables, it lacks the type of support networks and workspaces enjoyed by other more-established cities in scientific sectors.
And while the UK is an internationally recognised leader for scientific research, ranked second only to the US in terms of research outputs, it lags behind in converting these research opportunities into commercial technologies.
Built without using public funding, Unit DX is unique as it is a start-up in itself, founded by scientists looking to solve an infrastructure problem and lower the barriers to entry for scientific entrepreneurs.
SETsquared Bristol centre director Monika Radclyffe said: “Bristol is a fantastic city in which to start a company. The SETsquared – Unit DX partnership will provide a real boost for science entrepreneurs in the South West.
“Thanks to the partnership, Unit DX tenants will be able to not only benefit from their high-quality support environment, but also SETsquared’s guidance on business growth, strong links to investor community and university expertise.”
Invest Bristol & Bath head of inward investment Matthew Cross added: “There is a rich heritage of innovation from start-ups in the region that have gone on to become a major force in their technology area, and Unit DX will enable the same for the scientific community.
“Such a vibrant start-up scene has been a magnet to international investors such as Cray Supercomputers, Strava, Oracle, Imaginarium and we expect the same to happen in the science sector. There isn’t a privately-funded science incubator like this in the UK currently, and we’re proud that Bristol and Bath’s reputation for innovation is leading the way in this area.”
The inspiration came from a problem experienced by University of Bristol PhD graduate and Unit DX founder Dr Harry Destecroix. While launching his first start-up, Ziylo, based on research conducted during his doctorate at the university, he found a remarkable lack of appropriate laboratory space in the area to house his new company.
Further investigations showed that it was a common complaint from scientific entrepreneurs, so Unit DX was created to overcome this.
Dr Destecroix said: “Scientific companies need spaces built specifically for them. They need laboratory space to conduct research and access to state-of-the-art instrumentation. Unit DX is designed around the needs of scientists and will lower the time and cost required to take a great idea and turn it into real world, working technology.
“I’m especially excited about what’s going to be achieved when great scientific minds from across different disciplines such as synthetic biology and quantum technologies come together under one roof, in one of the UK’s most entrepreneurial cities.”
Today’s opening was in conjunction with British Science Week.
