23/12/2011

Civic and private business leaders in Bradford are working to encourage science and medical companies to take advantage of new state-of-the-art work spaces and offices at the local Listerhills Science and Technology Park.

The park had been home to bio pharmaceutical company, Nektar Therapeutics, until it folded in 2006. Since then the Bradford-based analytical services lab, Agenda 1, has taken up a significant amount office space and is calling on other similar companies to do the same.

Agenda 1's managing director, Ian Siragher, said that the condition of the premises and the facilities offer great potential for local science companies to develop, and its proximity to the University of Bradford and Bradford City puts it in a prime location.

Siragher said his company has invested some £500,000 in equipping labs in the business space to cGMP-quality standards and is actively encouraging other scientific businesses to make use of them, in a bid to let them see the potential there is in the park.

"As an R&D centre at Listerhills, we can provide start-ups with a walk-in facility where they can drop in and run their experiments," Siragher explained. "We can also perform the analytical work so they can concentrate on research and getting the science right without having to initially invest in costly products and equipment."

He added that the park had the potential to become a "nucleus for a thriving science hub."