A survey of 84 companies in the Cheshire business park and science and technology campus revealed there are currently 113 collaborations between different businesses. Tony McDonough reports

Collaboration between firms at Sci-Tech Daresbury generated sales or cost savings of £6.6m in 2016 – up from £4.8m in 2015.

A survey of 84 companies in the Cheshire business park and science and technology campus revealed there are currently 113 collaborations between different businesses.

It shows 55% of firms are actively collaborating with each other and are mainly in the form of buyer-seller relationships and collaborative partnerships.

Sci-Tech Daresbury is currently home to 120 companies including Atos, Mellanox Technologies, Conveyor Networks, Peak 42 and Perfectus Medical, with 34 new companies locating to the site in 2016.

The survey also revealed that seven out of 10 companies based at the site are collaborating with a university or with the research council, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

While the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester continue to represent the most prominent relationships, collaboration is increasing with other research-intensive universities outside the North West.

These include Imperial College London and the Universities of Strathclyde and Leeds.

These collaborations have generated an estimated £13m of value through the likes of collaborative research projects, buyer-supplier relationships and utilisation of technical facilities.

Sci-Tech Daresbury is a private-public joint venture partnership between developer Langtree, STFC and Halton Council.

John Downes, group managing director of Langtree and chairman of the Sci-Tech Daresbury joint venture company, said: “Collaboration is critical to the businesses based at Sci-Tech Daresbury and a huge part of the eco-system that exists here.

“It is also an essential part of the DNA of Sci-Tech Daresbury and sits at the heart of how we do business.”