CORDIS Archive

Greater Cambridge Area – The context
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The Greater Cambridge Area is situated in the East of England, within easy reach of the Midlands to the North and London to the South. For international travellers, London Stansted airport lies just 25 miles from the centre of Cambridge, London Gatwick and London Heathrow are 2 hours drive and Luton airport just one hour away.

The historic city of Cambridge lies at the heart of the sub-region. Famed traditionally for it’s historical colleges and architecture, Cambridge and the Cambridge sub-region is increasingly being recognised for its advancements in research and development and hi-tech growth (reported widely as 'The Cambridge Phenomenon / report'). The area is also referred to as the ‘Cambridge Technopole’, a geographic area of intense high-technology innovation activity encompassing the city of Cambridge at its heart and the sub-regional Greater Cambridge hinterland of approximately 20-mile radius.
Cambridge sits in the wider region of the East of England, one of the fastest growing regions in the UK. The Cambridge Technopole area has grown significantly since 1985 – it is now home to over 3,500 high technology ventures employing around 50,000 people and makes a contribution of £7.6bn to the UK economy.

Greater Cambridge attracts hundreds of business enquiries and visitors each year who wish to benefit from the area's support for innovation and start-ups, its expertise in research and development and hi-tech industries, and an increasing number of business and science parks.

Key Facts about Greater Cambridgeshire
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• Cambridge has been acknowledged as one of the world’s leading high-technology business clusters by publications including Time, Fortune, and Wired. E.g., Time recently assessed the top 50 ‘hottest’ high tech companies in Europe – 9 of which are based in Cambridge.
• Growth in the Cambridge economy is on par with leading regions in the USA and the sub-region makes a significant on-going contribution to the economy - £7.6bn GVA.
• Cambridge is one of a handful of regions to be consistently ranked by the European Commission as ‘excellent for its support for high tech start-ups’.
• Numerous significant scientific discoveries and inventions have been made at the University of Cambridge. This is reflected in the fact that the University has more Nobel Laureates than any other university in the world – 80 in total.
• University of Cambridge people and technology have been at the heart of over 180 new high-tech ventures in the past 10 years, many of which now lead their industry sectors.

The Success of Cambridge
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It has been suggested that one of the reasons underpinning the success of Cambridge is not so much what the individual organisations do, but the way in which they do it. This can be summed up as :

• Community – in Cambridge there is a sense of being part of something significant and special that makes a real impact on the world. The Cambridge Network’s strap line of ‘Cambridge ideas change the world’ perhaps best sums this up.
• Collaboration – because of the sense of community, organisations and individuals are typically very willing to help each other. This is reflected in the high level of engagement of the business community in educational activities throughout Cambridge.
• Constructive Chaos – there is no group that ‘organises’ Cambridge. New initiatives are continuously springing up – some succeed and some fail. This may be perceived as inefficient from one standpoint, but does not result in a highly entrepreneurial environment.

The Economy
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IThe economy in Greater Cambridge remains one of high activity, characterised by the growth of hi-tech clusters, new and expanding businesses in key growth areas of the UK economy, a highly qualified workforce and low unemployment. This does however understate differences across the area with much of the growth in the hi-tech and business services sectors concentrated in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, and an increasing presence of new and expanding manufacturing and distribution businesses in the market towns.

Hi-Tech Growth
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In a little over 20 years, the number of hi-tech firms located around Cambridge has grown nearly eight fold.

Growth of the Hi-tech Industry in Greater Cambridge
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Today, there are over 1,500 hi-tech firms concentrated predominantly in Cambridge and the immediate surrounding area, employing approximately 44,000 people.

The growth of hi-tech businesses in the area - or the 'Cambridge Phenomenon' as it is known - has been acknowledged in a number of leading publications as one of the world's premier hi-tech clusters, earning Greater Cambridge the label 'Silicon Fen'.

The European Commission in recognition of its support of innovation and start-ups, and the growth of hi-tech has also twice named greater Cambridge as a ‘Region of Excellence’ and business clusters in the area.

The key business sectors are :

• Information technology
• Mobile telecommunications
• Biotechnology
• Instrumentation

There are a number of agencies and organisations across the sub-region assisting the growth and development of the hi-tech businesses and supporting services.

Other Sectors
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Manufacturing is the second largest employment sector after the service industries, accounting for around 16 - 20% of total employment. This sector is particularly important to rural communities, which account for over 40% of total employment in this sector.

Primary industries play a significantly smaller part in the local economy (approximately 5% of the total employment). Agriculture plays a more significant role to the local economy in the rural communities.

Tourism generates more than £500 million annually for the area, and supports 5,500 full time jobs (8% of the jobs total for the city) in Cambridge alone.

The Greater Cambridge Area - particularly Cambridge and the market towns - is very popular with both domestic and international visitors. Almost half of all visitors are from the UK, although the area attracts visitors from around the world especially North America and Europe.

In addition to leisure visitors, the area also attracts business visitors and conferences. This provides additional revenue with the average staying corporate conference delegate spending approximately £140 per day.

Distribution, banking and finance are also important to the local market towns.

Self-employment accounts for an estimated 13% of all jobs in the Greater Cambridge area.

New and Expanding Businesses
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The proportion of new businesses within the services sector continued to grow in the period July 1999 to June 2000. This was particularly so in South Cambridgeshire with 92% of all new businesses in this sector. At a sub-regional level, the distribution and business services sectors dominated the emergence of new businesses.

The growth in the hi-tech sector has slowed with the global turndown. However, it is becoming apparent that some expanding hi-tech businesses are developing sites further from Cambridge, thus spreading the economic benefit of the 'Cambridge Phenomenon' further into the sub-region.

GDP
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GDP per capita for the East of England is above the UK average. The latest regional data (1998) showed the East of England to have the third highest GDP per capita in the UK, preceded only by London and the Southeast.

Similarly, the personal disposable income per capita, or the amount residents have to spend on goods and services, is significantly greater than the UK average.

Universities
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There are three universities within the Cambridge Technopole area: the University of Cambridge, Anglia Polytechnic University and the Open University.

The University of Cambridge is one of the largest in the U.K. Its reputation for outstanding academic achievement is recognized world-wide. It has over 15,500 fulltime students; www.cam.ac.uk.

Anglia Polytechnic University (APU) has some 24,000 students (of which 2/3 are mature students) & courses are delivered with a strong vocational emphasis.

Open University (OU) is the largest provider of undergraduate part-time education in the East of England supporting over 16,000 students.

The above universities are part of a £4.5m collaborative project to maximize business innovation and economic growth through partnership with the higher education in the East of England. The Regional Infrastructure for Innovation (RII) is made up of 10 of the region’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and supports business by mobilizing the resources and capabilities of the HEIs towards their innovation needs.

In recognition of the role that the University of Cambridge plays as the UK’s premier teaching and research university, the UK Government awarded UK£65 million to establish the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI). CMI is a joint venture between Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on improving the Uk’s productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurship.