John Anstee, NetPark mastermind
Feb 9 2010 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette
The man behind the successful NetPark at Sedgefield imported the idea from a pioneering scheme started in Durham, North Carolina. John Anstee told Sue Scott about it.
The parallels couldn’t be ignored and shortly after a visit 12 years ago, for which John, by now pro-vice chancellor at Durham University, roped in the County Durham Development Company, the County Council and the North East Chamber of Commerce, they set about creating a copycat park at Sedgefield, backed by One North East.
Building began in 2004 and among the first young businesses to move in were two local university spin outs - Durham Scientific Crystals (now Kromek) and Sunderland’s Roar Particles, both pioneering in their particular fields of bioscience. A cornerstone of the park was Durham University’s own advanced instrumentation group which gives hard-up starters access to highly sophisticated kit as part of the NetPark package.
As the park’s reputation grew, others joined them, including Ithaka Life Sciences - a rewarding catch, since it migrated from Cambridge, one of the most successful and respected university-backed technology clusters.
But what really put NetPark on the map was the Printed Electronics Technology Centre, a specialist division of the Wilton-based Centre for Process Industries, which opened with a fanfare of publicity in 2008. Its work on mind-bending applications of advanced ideas to everyday products, including fold-up plasma screens and intelligent clothing, fired the public imagination.
Attracted like moths to a flame of knowledge now being generated by a dynamic cluster of small but innovative companies active in sexy areas of science such as nanotechnology and photonics, these giants of the modern world are not flirting, says John. They’re looking for a long-term partnerships, which could bring jobs in their wake.
The NetPark model, which helps derisk unproven technologies as they go through the dangerous process of early commercialisation, is particularly attractive to global players - as, potentially, is the skills base that could be built up around the cluster.
It’s a huge leap from the pits to photonics.
“But if it can be done in North Carolina, it can be done here,” says John. “Petec demonstrates that we have the potential to really lead, not just in the UK, but to become major international players, which is what we have to be.”
For an extended version of this interview, see next month’s North East Vision magazine, free with the Evening Gazette.
