Cherrywood in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is to be the site of a 30,000 sq ft life sciences incubation and acceleration centre, providing specialised lab, office and collaboration space for more than a hundred professionals and entrepreneurs.
The facility will be created and operated by We Are Pioneer Group (WAPG, formerly BioCity), a British-based operator in incubating and accelerating life sciences businesses, with nine locations in the UK.
It’s backed by investor Spear Street Capital, which is focused on investing in next level innovation infrastructure.
The lab centre will be known as WAPG at The Campus and the plan is for it to link Irish life sciences businesses at the campus to more than 600 life science companies, mentors and entrepreneurs throughout its network.
The WAPG team will run accelerator and venture development programmes for cohorts of life sciences startups, coaching them in entrepreneurial and scientific excellence, advising them on the likely routes to investment and how best to bring their products or services to market, as well as connecting them to life science multinationals.
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“Having specialist labs that are fit for purpose from day one is a huge advantage for the startup companies that will be incubated and accelerated at the facility,” said Spear Street president Rajiv Patel.
Patel added: “We are investing a significant amount in this new incubation and acceleration space, in order to create a life sciences ‘innovation anchor’ at the heart of The Campus, Cherrywood, which will benefit startups, academic institutes and large corporates. Given the burgeoning and vibrant life sciences sector we are witnessing across Ireland, we are confident that we will succeed.”
WAPG executive director Toby Reid added: “Our vision is to grow and fully develop this strategically important site and amplify the existing strong fundamentals of a highly educated talent pool, ground-breaking research and rapid growth.
“The strength of the community at Cherrywood can already be seen in the success of many high-growth businesses, such as pharma research company APC, whose €25m investment in vaccine manufacture will support the creation of 120 new jobs via a new medicines accelerator.
“Through an integrated approach of VC funding, startup and scale-up programmes and property, WAPG will create an innovation ecosystem in which life science and technology businesses like this can scale and grow."
The company manages more than 2.6 million sq ft of science parks and single assets at nine locations: BioCity Glasgow, BioCity Nottingham, Cardiff Edge, Colworth Science Park, Edinburgh Technopole, Hexagon Tower, Kent Science Park, MediCity Nottingham, and the Wilton Centre.
