Architect Fiona Grieve recently joined a Future Cities Forum Science Cities panel to discuss the resilience of UK science parks against the current economy, how to keep leading life science companies in the UK, and the integration of science parks into the wider community. 

According to Future Cities Forum’s latest report, ‘young spin out companies need to be encouraged to stay in the UK but need the facilities to expand and many developers are building flexible spaces for them to do just that. However, there needs to be more young minds coming into the science arena through STEM courses. Young women are being particularly encouraged to even up the male bias. So, it is vital that partnerships are created with local schools in areas of science development.’ 

As an advocate for equity and social justice working within the life sciences sector, Fiona spoke about the importance of providing links between science parks and education so young people see a future for working in science. 

'We speak a lot about the economy and jobs but how are we inspiring the next generation, the children of the future? Anyone should be able to see science as their future. It is all about democratising science.' 

Our masterplan for a new science park at Eastpoint on the outer edge of Oxford aims to create links to the neighbouring Oxford Academy and provide educational opportunities for the wider community.  ‘We realised that our science park was next to a school and that there was something we could contribute to there. We asked ourselves - how can we create this relationship to offer something positive?’ 

'We speak a lot about the economy and jobs but how are we inspiring the next generation, the children of the future? We have done a lot of work on this with the Oxford Trust at Eastpoint. Connections [between Science Parks and] schools are not easy, but we can try hard to break those boundaries down. Anyone should be able to see science as their future. It is all about democratising science.' 

To find out more, read the report in full here.