A brand new, £2.4million Innovation Hub has opened at the Bristol and Bath Science Park, bringing investment and high-tech jobs to the area.

Following a ribbon cutting to mark the opening yesterday, South Gloucestershire Council Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources, Ben Burton, welcomed representatives from the three tenants, TP Group, Spark Product Innovation and INSPHERE, as they look to take occupancy of the state-of-the-art new facilities.

The Science Park, which is jointly owned by South Gloucestershire Council and the University of Bath, has a Gateway Policy, which means that we seek tenants whose activities are in the fields of science, technology, research and development, which enables us to develop a vibrant research and business community in South Gloucestershire.

Prior to COVID, the existing accommodation was fully occupied, with a waiting list for most sized offices. Funding was sought to help us meet the additional demand for office space and £1million was granted from the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Economic Development Fund, with an additional £1.4million being approved by Cabinet to provide high-spec office space, furnished and ready to move into.

The new 5,000sq ft Innovation Hub has been designed to complement the existing award-winning buildings onsite and allows flexibility for each floor to be sub-divided into two or three individual office areas if required.

Every aspect of the physical design of the Science Park is designed to encourage and facilitate collaboration. The resulting innovation often crosses sectors and connects industries that might not otherwise have considered working together.

Councillor Burton said: “I am delighted to be able to formally open these impressive new facilities and to see that they are already driving new investment and expansion in our high-tech sectors. The Science Park is already a world-class centre for science and technology businesses to grow and as we look towards the future, I have no doubt this new space will encourage even more innovation, investment and job opportunities for our community.

“Excitingly, all three tenants are expanding to this larger accommodation from our existing Innovation Centre and we are already receiving interest in the offices being vacated from both new and existing companies.”

Johnathan Milsom of TP Group said: “TP Group moving to the Innovation Hub at the Bristol and Bath Science Park gives us the opportunity to bring a large number of our consultants together from multiple sites and business units into one office. We were impressed with the amount of collaboration space for our consultants to use across both sites at the Science Park and look forward to bringing our consultants to site. Just over the very first few weeks of using the forum space we have already begun discussions with other residents to build on potential opportunities to collaborate on projects going forward”

Alan Lam of Spark Product Innovation said: “As a technical design consultancy Bristol and Bath Science Park has always provided us with an excellent facility to perform our operations. The opportunity to expand and grow into the Innovation hub now give us a further presence to showcase our business combined with the world class facilities it offers. We look forward to moving into the new building and continuing to grow our business in the coming years”.

Ben Adeline of INSPHERE said: “We’re delighted to be taking on space in the Innovation Hub, a move which is supporting our continued growth and the success of INSPHERE. The new facility will allow us to establish a new metrology and robotics research laboratory as well as provide much needed office capacity to allow us to expand our team”.