Geographical clusters

On 3 March 2015, the Academy of Medical Sciences, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, held an event on geographical clusters as part of the Academy’s FORUM programme. Its aim was to explore how the UK’s various clusters of life science activity can work together effectively to drive medical research and innovation, and to discuss current challenges and opportunities.

The event bought together representatives from a wide range of cluster organisations, and was the first meeting of its kind to draw together such a broad range of UK cluster leaders. The report explores the potential for a combined UK offering built upon the individual strengths of the geographical clusters. It also identifies the opportunities and challenges faced by the clusters, including the important role that the clusters can play within their local area, nationally and internationally, as well as the importance of the heterogeneity and wide-ranging expertise of each of the cluster groupings. The report can be downloaded from the righthand side of this page.

The Academy followed this workshop with another event in 2017, which further explored the role of the clusters and some of the key themes that emerged during discussions. Please see the 2017 meeting project tab for more information.

On 1 February 2017, the Academy and the Wellcome Trust held a joint FORUM workshop  to follow up and build on the discussions from the initial 'Geographical clusters' workshop held in 2015. The workshop was co-chaired by Professor Chris Day FMedSci, Vice-Chancellor and President, Newcastle University, and Professor Stephen Caddick, Director of Innovations, Wellcome Trust. 

At the workshop, participants explored the UK environment for the life sciences clusters, identifying a vision for the future, challenges to achieving this vision and steps to overcoming these barriers. The discussions considered the role of the clusters in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, and identified an overarching need for a strong, combined UK voice across the clusters founded on their individual strengths. The report of the meeting has since been published and is available to download from the righthand side of the page.

Following the 2017 FORUM workshop, the Academy and Wellcome Trust convened a small, focused meeting of the UK cluster leads in May 2017 to address the need for a single, coordinated national voice across the life sciences clusters, which was identified at the workshop.

Following this meeting, the Academy is now acting as the secretariat for convening the UK life sciences clusters on a biannual basis, with the next meeting in Spring 2021.

To find out more about this ongoing work, please e-mail forum@acmedsci.ac.uk.