06/10/2025
The Government’s announcement of a £400 million investment into Cambridge signals a powerful recognition of what our city does best - creating places where innovation thrives. But real growth doesn’t just come from funding or infrastructure. It comes from communities that connect people, ideas, and expertise.
At Babraham Research Campus, community is at the heart of everything we do.
The power of the ecosystem
Cambridge has long been known as a powerhouse of science and innovation. Yet what makes it truly exceptional is the network of people and places that work together to turn great ideas into world-changing breakthroughs. The secret to success lies in its innovation ecosystems - environments where researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders can collaborate, share knowledge, and accelerate discovery.
Babraham Research Campus is one of those ecosystems. Home to more than 60 life science companies and the Babraham Institute, the Campus provides the perfect balance of scientific excellence, shared facilities, and a supportive environment where companies can focus on what they do best: developing the science that improves lives.
LiveLabs: innovation through community
Nowhere is that ecosystem more visible than in LiveLabs - our flexible, shared laboratory space designed for early-stage and growing life science companies. LiveLabs brings scientists together, literally side by side, to share equipment, insight, and experience.
This proximity creates something powerful: peer-to-peer learning. When companies work in close quarters, collaboration happens naturally. Advice is shared, challenges are discussed, and discoveries move faster because learning is collective.
LiveLabs isn’t just a lab space. It’s a launchpad for growth - a place where companies can build momentum, scale sustainably, and form lasting connections with the wider Babraham Research Campus community. Many of the companies that start in LiveLabs go on to establish their own dedicated facilities on Campus, staying connected to the network that supported their first steps.
“What was great about LiveLabs was that we were able to just move in, buy some reagents, and start. We didn’t have to worry about kitting out lab space or taking on huge overheads. For an early-stage business, that kind of flexibility is invaluable.”
Brian Carpenter, Aboligo
Making innovation work
Reflecting on the themes discussed at the Innovate Cambridge Summit, Jo Parfrey, Chair of the Babraham Research Campus Board, highlighted the importance of creating the right conditions for growth across the region:
“To make innovation work, we must build vibrancy within our communities - creating environments where people can learn from one another, where talent is nurtured and shared, and where companies have the support to grow exponentially. That’s exactly what Babraham Research Campus does so well.”
Collaboration that drives Cambridge’s next chapter
As the Government looks to Cambridge to deliver the UK’s next phase of growth, with the ambition to turn the Oxford-Cambridge corridor into the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley, it’s communities like Babraham Research Campus that will make that ambition real.
Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation - it happens when bright minds come together in environments that support experimentation, sharing and scale.
By providing access to world-class facilities, shared resources, and a vibrant peer network, the Campus helps science-based companies go further, faster. The result is a collaborative, supportive ecosystem that fuels both individual and collective progress where discovery fuels enterprise, and enterprise fuels discovery.
“Cambridge is unparalleled for antibody development. The ecosystem here - the companies, the talent, the prestige - is unique. Strategically, it’s exactly where we need to be.”
Henry Farmery, Campus-based Forth Therapeutics
A connected future
As part of the £400m investment, funding of at least £15 million has been earmarked for the Cambridge Innovation Hub - a 2.7-acre site in Hills Road to connect entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and researchers.
This significant financial boost offers an opportunity to strengthen Cambridge’s innovation fabric — expanding the spaces, infrastructure, and partnerships that make growth sustainable. At Babraham, we’re proud to play our part in shaping that future: creating the conditions where science, community and collaboration come together to deliver impact.