A recent Life Science summit, hosted by The Times and The Sunday Times, showcased the vibrant and dynamic life sciences sector in Scotland.
Aberdeen, the host city of the summit, stands as a key hub in Scotland’s rapidly expanding life sciences industry.
Located in northeast Scotland, Aberdeen is on a transformative journey to becoming the energy capital of Europe. The city is harnessing the same entrepreneurial spirit that once established it as a leading hub for the oil and gas industry.
Aberdeen has gained recognition in the life sciences arena thanks to a series of strong regional clusters emerging in biotech, with notable spinouts and startups, as well as highly respected institutes playing an integral part in its progress.
The appeal of Aberdeen’s life sciences activities builds upon the city’s economic strengths, its education and skills record, and the progress being made in areas not traditionally associated with life sciences, such as agriculture, nutrition, and health.
Competitiveness fuelled by skills and talent
The northeast of Scotland offers a competitive business environment with a diverse range of opportunities, skills, and knowledge across key sectors. While the region has long been a world leader in the energy sector, it has also earned a reputation in life sciences, having one of the largest concentrations of life scientists in Europe and the largest biologics cluster in the UK after Cambridge.
At the centre of this activity is Aberdeen. With a population approaching half a million, Aberdeen’s regional GVA per capita and average earnings are consistently among the highest in the UK.
Education is core to any city’s success, and Aberdeen is home to two world-class universities: the renowned University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University, the latter with its School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. Along with North East Scotland College, these institutions produce Scotland’s most employable graduates.
Turning innovation into viable opportunities
Backed by a strong academic talent pool, Aberdeen is the very place where innovative ideas translate into tangible opportunities.
The University of Aberdeen is home to a number of enterprises, including the Scottish Biologics facility, which from its base on the city’s Foresterhill Health Campus has developed an excellent reputation for generating antibodies from phage display libraries, along with a variety of in-house ‘tool kits’ specifically tailored to progress them to commercially viable assets.
The ONE BioHub, in Aberdeen, is a place where life sciences entrepreneurs and founders build their businesses and commercialise new therapies, treatments, technology and solutions for health and wellbeing, transform healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes. ONE BioHub, which opened August 2023, provides a unique combination of laboratory and office facilities and networks and support programmes.
The city is also home to the James Hutton Institute, a leading research institute for land, crops, water, and the environment. The Institute responds to climate-related challenges by applying its scientific expertise to develop interventions, tools, products, and land management practices to improve the resilience of crops, land, natural resources, and communities.
Meanwhile, NHS Grampian’s Innovation Hub, established in 2016, exists to match the best ideas and solutions with the most difficult healthcare challenges. It identifies close-to-the-market potential solutions and ensures NHS Grampian is an attractive environment to test and evaluate such products.
At the Rowett Institute, crucial research is undertaken into nutrition and human health. As part of the University of Aberdeen’s School of Medicine, Medical Sciences, and Nutrition, the Institute occupies a new, state-of-the-art building on the University’s main Health Campus at Foresterhill. The 10,000m² premises include a clinical investigation unit, a metabolic research facility, a body composition suite, and extensive laboratories.
From start-up to long-term success
Aberdeen’s track record of launching successful life sciences ventures is exemplary, with considerable commercial potential demonstrated by its startup establishments.
Notable start-ups making their way up in the world of life science developments include NovaBiotics, an innovative biotechnology group whose consumer health arm has commercial products for the personal care market, while its pharma division has advanced clinical stage product candidates for medically unmet, life-limiting inflammatory, infectious, and respiratory diseases.
Vertebrate Antibodies, formed by research scientists from the University of Aberdeen, aims to enhance the lives of animals and humans through developing high-quality monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies for research and clinical applications.
The reputation of these new businesses is growing internationally. Medical technology and device start-up Sirakoss, which was spun out of the University of Aberdeen in 2011, was acquired by Swedish firm OssDsign in 2020, underlining the commercial appeal of northeast Scotland’s life sciences sector.
Aberdeen is at the forefront of life sciences innovation with a growing regional and national significance. The city undoubtedly positions itself as a leading global destination in the field, with its rich talent pool, cutting-edge research and supportive infrastructure.
With its robust academic institutions, innovative research facilities, and a thriving ecosystem of startups and established enterprises, Aberdeen presents itself as a prime location for investment and collaboration, driving advancements that benefit both the local community and the broader global market.
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