Southampton Science Park at UKSPA 40th Anniversary Conference
Science Park CEO Robin Chave, Finance Director Vicki Roath, and Operations Director Stuart Perry attended the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) 40th Anniversary Conference held in Warwick. Southampton Science Park is proud to have been a founding member of UKSPA, which oversees the national innovation sector.
The breadth of topics covered at this particular event amply reflected the vibrancy of the sector and underpinned stakeholder interest in amplifying its success. Keynote presentations were given by Professor Dame Jessica Corner - Research England, Jordan Cummins - UK Competitiveness Director at the CBI, Professor Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Adviser - Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, and Angelene Woodland - British Business Bank.
Vicki Roath attended a session on advancing inclusivity, considering neurodiversity, age, gender, disabilities and socio-economic backgrounds. She commented, “While there have been great strides to support women in STEM and successful frameworks to support those with disabilities, I was particularly struck by presentations highlighting a need to champion young people more comprehensively. Evidence suggests that it is the younger members of staff who tend to feel isolated and under-supported in hybrid working situations, and these are the employees who are actively seeking opportunities to grow their networks through, for example, charity, environmental and social responsibility initiatives. Encouraging participation in campus-wide events is something that resident companies should consider when arranging internships and onboarding new team members, not forgetting allowing access to apps and social media networks.”
Reflecting on the sessions Stuart Perry attended, he said, “I was inspired by what has been achieved in the space sector: through linking innovation clusters and hotspots, an impressive country-wide experience and knowledge based ecosystem has been created. There are timely opportunities to replicate this approach across other sectors. Another thing for me to take away is the role that science parks can play in educating future generations of scientists through, for example, resident family fun days.”
During this event, UKSPA named Southampton Science Park in the top tier of UK science and technology parks, alongside other prestigious facilities in Oxford Harwell, Cambridge and Daresbury.
Robin Chave, Science Park CEO, commented, “We are absolutely delighted to be recognised as one of the UK’s four leading science and technology parks. This is a huge achievement that we are extremely proud of. It is testimony to the hard work and dedication of my in-house and extended team which delivers a high quality experience every day for the companies that have chosen to locate their operations here. It demonstrates that our support for innovative businesses, regardless of their size, is quite unrivalled in our region and crucially, it signals that we are on the right track to cater for their needs far into the future, as part of Britain’s burgeoning innovation economy.”
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