New group targeting global investment

Jan 15 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

AN organisation set up to boost scientific and economic development in the region’s medical sector is on the hunt for global investment from multinational firms as it looks to levering £6m of funding by 2012.

RegeNer8 was formed last year through a partnership between regional development agencies (RDAs), academic institutions and industry to support the development of regenerative medicine – a groundbreaking field which seeks new treatments for diseases related to tissue damage.

The group covers the entire North of England and aims to accelerate the growth of new regenerative techniques – which often use specially-grown tissues and cells and artificial organs.

Next week it will celebrate its first birthday and it can look back on a year which has seen it source £2m in funding from RDAs across the North and help set up a number of collaborative projects in the rapidly-emerging regenerative field.

However, as pioneering regenerative techniques become increasingly recognised globally, the organisation will now embark on a push to drive international investment into the region.

The group has drawn up a three-year plan to attract £6m in inward investment from businesses around the world into the North’s regenerative medicine sector, in addition to any additional RDA funding it receives.

It has also outlined job creation as a key component to its strategy in the coming years. Carolyn Horrocks, business development manager at RegeNer8, said: "At the moment, the US has huge university centres with hundreds of scientists.

"The only way that universities and industry in the UK can compete is by pooling their resources to create critical mass.

"The next phase will be to market ourselves more broadly and to bring in more inward investment into the region.

"We are not just looking locally, we are looking globally at companies across the world."

As part of its bid to push the North East’s science and healthcare sectors to the huge US market, the organisation has teamed up with UK Trade and Investment and the North of England Inward Investment Team, which both actively promote the region overseas.

Next week leading scientists from the North East will head to a meeting in York which will mark RegeNer8’s first anniversary and will see the organisation announce funding awards for some of its members.

The North of England currently hosts healthcare industry giants Astra-Zeneca, Smith and Nephew and Johnson and Johnson, who are all active in the regenerative medical field.