30 Years Of Innovation
Set on a 34-acre stretch of brownfield land just north of Wolverhampton city centre, the site had stood idle for more than ten years – what emerged from that derelict ground was a home for innovation, collaboration and growth, an ambitious experiment that would change the face of technology and enterprise in the region.
The journey to this point began in the 1980s, led by Dr John Cooper, the Science Park’s first chief executive. It was a plan that required vision, persistence and a nurturing approach.
When it opened, Dr Cooper declared: "Wolverhampton Science Park will provide an impressive gateway to the town and bring life to a once derelict area. We hope it comes to symbolise a new confidence.''
Today, as the University of Wolverhampton Science Park marks its 30th anniversary, it again finds itself at the heart of transformational proposals for the city.
Linking the university’s Springfield Campus, the science park site and the i54 advanced manufacturing park – home to Jaguar Land Rover’s electric propulsion centre and a Moog aerospace plant among others – the Green Innovation Corridor aims to deliver 20,000 sqm of new R&D, laboratory and commercial floorspace.
Phase 1 will utilise £20 million of Levelling Up Funding to concentrate at the Springfield end of the corridor. Phase 2, referred to as 6-mile green, will see four parcels of land around the science park site being brought forward for development supported by £7 million of Investment Zone funding. Public consultation on the 6-mile green proposal was completed in August, with positive feedback.
It will see a further stage in a development that started in 1993 when the science park site was just a patch of heavily polluted brownfield land.
Scientific history
Just north of Wolverhampton city centre, the site had been used since Victorian times for engineering works synonymous with the manufacturing heritage of the area. Once occupied by Wolverhampton Gas Works, Hawker Siddeley and the Electric Construction Company, the land had been empty and unusable for more than decade, soaked in acids and chemicals from more than a century of heavy industrial use.
As well as its industrial use, the site had already made scientific history in 1862. On 5th September a balloon filled with coal gas from the Stafford Road works achieved a world record altitude without oxygen of 37,000 feet – around six miles.
Planned as a scientific venture, the hair-raising ascent by scientist James Glaisher and balloonist Henry Coxwell saw them narrowly survive oxygen deprivation and near-freezing temperatures and their feat was captured in the 2019 Aeronauts film, all be it with a dash of Hollywood artistic licence!
The creation of Wolverhampton Science Park fortunately didn’t pose such risks, but did need the support of the Government of the day to help cover the £3.5 million cost of reclamation work on the 34-acre site, as decontamination work started in February 1993 to remove polluted topsoil down to a depth of 10ft, using 40 lorries a day to take it away.
The site was formally opened in October 1995 with the concept to be a home for hi-tech businesses and an incubator to help start-up companies get off the ground. The initial 50,000 sq ft of buildings, Technology Centre and Development Centre, had companies queuing up for the combination of flexible rented space and knowledge transfer links with the university.
A 25,000 sq ft extension to the Technology Centre in 2000 was followed in 2004 by 35,000 sq ft of the Creative Industries Centre – which is home to UKSPA’s 2024 Most Innovative Company award-winners, hi-tech toy company Wow! Stuff – their story captures the essence of the Science Park: a place where bold ideas and creative ambition evolve into global success. The latest addition to the site in 2017 brought purpose-built Cat 1 and 2 laboratories to the site in the form of the 30,000 sq ft, award-winning Science Centre.
How far we’ve come
Nigel Babb has run the University of Wolverhampton Science Park for the past 12 years, joining initially as interim commercial director before taking over on a permanent basis at the end of 2013.
“A major anniversary provides an opportunity to look back at how far we have come,” said Nigel. “When you look back to where we were so much technology has changed. The original phase one building had office space, a conference centre and a café, but it also had, as part of the planning application, what was called “a state-of-the-art communications tower”.
“The original intent was that was how we were going to get the Internet: it was going to be beamed to us from the highest point in Wolverhampton. However, with rapid advancements in technology, dial-up modems and ADSL came along and it was never used”
Technology has moved on, and today one of the science park’s attractions for new tenants is its secure and reliable superfast broadband network with back-up line – offering shared bandwidth and dedicated connection options depending on need and price point.
“it’s just expected now but I remember what a bid deal the upgrade to superfast broadband speed and resilience was when we replaced the old copper network. But that’s the joy of working with a maturing estate!
“The most important thing we have achieved in my time has been construction of the £10 million Science Centre building, which gave us Category 2 labs on the site for the first time – it was one of the shortcomings I had identified when I joined.
“I could not have predicted, of course, that two short years later the Science Centre would prove a godsend; we were heavily involved in fighting the pandemic, opening up all our labs for businesses to carry out COVID-19 testing.
“We even converted some workshops into labs as well to give us extra capacity. And we've managed to retain quite a few of those businesses since after the pandemic. We didn’t see a massive exodus; a lot of them stayed on and pivoted their business model.”
Nigel continued: “Part of the reason for bringing the Science Centre with the labs on board was to try and increase the number of true science-based companies into the mix. Back in 2015 the University of Wolverhampton invested £20 million in the Rosalind Franklin Building in the city centre, housing its science-based teaching and upgrading facilities.
“We needed to create a base in Wolverhampton for people to locate their science-based activity, creating a demand for the highly qualified, science-based graduates leaving the University – preventing a ‘brain drain’ to other parts of the UK – after all, the University of Wolverhampton is the University of Opportunity.
“At the time life sciences probably made up about two per cent of our tenants, whereas now it’s 12%. The other significant sectors tenant operate in are information economy, advanced construction, environmental services and creative industries.”
Technology transfer
The science park is currently home to over 120 tenants employing around 600 people.
The science park is also home to a small cluster of water technology companies, including one that is home grown. WatStech was originally established as a University research group, then became a spin-out company 20 years ago and subsequently became founder-led and has grown into a specialist provider of sustainable water treatment solutions, collaborating with leading utilities including Severn Trent, Thames Water, and West Country Water. Its work has contributed to national initiatives under the Strategic Resource Options (SROs) programme, focused on optimising treatment processes to secure water supplies for the future. These projects address critical challenges such as climate change, population growth, and increasing demand on natural resources, ensuring that water systems remain resilient and efficient.
The site is also home to cybersecurity firm Goldilock, one of only four companies on the NATIO DIANA – Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic – programme. The global tech firm has expanded its manufacturing and testing site at the Science Park this year after doubling its workforce to meet a rise in demand for its products. The firm said it expects to increase its team to 32 employees by the end of 2025 and create 44 new jobs by 2027.
Nigel said: “On one end of the spectrum we have firms looking at ecological sustainability and better ways to optimise crop yields such as hydroponics. On the other end we have a tenant developing innovative materials that address the semiconductor industry’s need for ever-decreasing microchip feature sizes.
“Wolverhampton, with its history as a polytechnic, has always been less about blue sky research (although there is some excellent work going on there) and more about converting academic intellectual property into real-world practical uses. It’s all about the technology transfer, how we translate knowledge into practical things that people and companies can take, exploit, innovate and be entrepreneurial with.”
More immediately, the University of Wolverhampton Science Park is preparing to become part of the city’s Green Innovation Corridor.
“The focus now is on green innovation and green technologies. We want to attract those sorts of companies to Wolverhampton. There is plenty of derelict and brownfield land, and we can use the expertise of the university to identify pockets of land that can be brought back into economical use.”
One end of the Corridor would be anchored at the university’s Springfield Campus, Europe's largest specialist architecture and built environment campus and home to the National Brownfield Institute.
“The city and university are becoming focussed on fields such as green computing, green construction, green manufacturing and circular economy. One of the things that the university is world-leading at is additive manufacturing, particularly 3D printing in metals such as copper. So I’m really excited with the establishment of the University’s National Centre for Green Electric Material Manufacturing (GEMM) both from an engineering perspective and the knock-on effect for supply chains and their desire to locate in Wolverhampton.
“Looking ahead I also think we are about to see a quantum shift in spin-outs from the university. There is a new research and enterprise directorate and the university is investing heavily with the aim of ultimately getting more spin-outs and even more technology transfer into businesses.”
“The opportunities as part of the Green Innovation Corridor are really exciting, and as part of the scheme, we will continue to be at the heart of innovation going forward as we have been for the past three decades.”
A home for growth For more information, head to www.wolverhamptonsp.co.uk