Businesses joining the programme will have access to a free hot desk at the campus’ Innovation Centre for 12 months and up to 20 days access to a shared laboratory and equipment

Liverpool city region science and innovation campus Sci-Tech Daresbury is launching a free ‘soft landing’ workspace and support service to international tech firms looking to set up in the UK.

Businesses joining the programme will have access to a free hot desk at the campus’ Innovation Centre for 12 months and up to 20 days access to a shared laboratory and equipment.

Registered office

Tenants will secure a UK registered office address at the campus, which is conveniently located near to Liverpool and Manchester, two international airports and the North West’s leading universities.

A number of companies have already signed up to the programme, including Kognitiv Spark, Files.fm and Codel Solutions.

Kognitiv Spark, an award-winning software provider based in Canada, offers secure industrial worker support using augmented and mixed reality, Files.fm is a Latvian company and provides secure cloud data storage and backup and Croatia-based Codel Solutions is a proprietary manufacturing execution software business.

The new service offers tenants business support and expertise from Sci-Tech Daresbury, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and wider partners, as well as access to funding opportunities.

Business hub

John Leake, business development manager at Sci-Tech Daresbury, said: “Sci-Tech Daresbury is an international business hub for science and technology and benefits from multiple collaboration and business support opportunities and powerful connections.

“We’ve been excited to see the success of our soft landing programme, which offers global companies the chance to base their operations out of one of the UK’s leading innovation campuses for 12 months.

“It’s a unique opportunity to gain access not only to high-quality workspace in a prestigious science campus, but also to capitalise on our ultra-connected location.”

Duncan McSporran, co-founder of Kognitiv Spark, said: “In autumn 2018 the UK Department for International Trade paid for a group of Canadian companies to come over to the UK for a tour of the Northern Powerhouse.

“We visited tech hub venues, research institutions and companies in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle. Of all the venues we visited we felt that Sci-Tech Daresbury best fulfilled our requirements.

“The soft landing programme has enabled us to acquire an office space with a UK address and to tap into Sci-Tech Daresbury’s network of technology companies and networking events.”