With new ideas innovation continuing to drive Cambridge’s businesses, Stephen Hodsdon – a partner, patent and trade mark attorney in the Cambridge office of J A Kemp – considers what engineering and IT fields may lead the way in 2019.

2019 looks likely to be another exciting year for the world-leading R & D that Cambridge excels in producing. 

It is a well-known statistic that Cambridge produces significantly more patent applications per head than any other area of the UK and this shows little sign of decreasing. As a patent attorney, this is of course unsurprising, but it doesn’t happen by accident.

The diversity of Cambridge-based innovation makes it hard to pick even a selection of sectors which will lead the way in 2018. However, gazing into my crystal ball (sadly neither real nor, as far as I can determine, a Cambridge invention), here are a few thoughts on the areas that could drive 2019’s innovation output.

First we are likely to see an increasing pervasiveness of Artificial Intelligence and its baby brother machine learning in every field of technology.  

As a result of larger data sets and new profiling approaches, there will be further advances in personalised medicine and the ability to diagnose (and hopefully treat) rare, and not-so-rare, diseases.  

The recent completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project provides an unprecedented data set to be worked on and it will be interesting to see how the results from this are taken forward.  

Improvements in, and wider deployment of, AI and ML-driven dynamic resource allocation is likely to create increasing efficiencies in all kinds of industries, from transport to computing, from finance to hospital care.  Indeed, applications to agriculture and the food chain provide opportunities to make a global impact on sustainability and tackling poverty and hunger.

Protecting AI inventions poses its own problems and often requires a balance between patenting and keeping aspects of the underlying data sets and decision-making algorithms as secret knowhow.

CleanTech is another area where Cambridge-based companies continue to lead the way, and attention is unlikely to shift away anytime soon. We will surely see (further) breakthroughs in battery technology which enable even wider adoption of electrical vehicles and moves towards the wider electrification of other modes of transport. 

Improved storage, together with continuing improvements in smart grid technologies, will also help maximise our ability to utilise the fluctuating output of renewables.

Finally, there are the seemingly perennial hot topics of 5G and IoT. 2019 should see the roll-out of 5G networks in the UK.

Although Cambridge is not one of the testbeds, Cambridge-based companies will inevitably be providing technology and continuing to innovate in this sphere.  

Happy inventing for 2019!

The general sentiment within the Cambridgeshire commercial property market has been ‘business as usual’ throughout 2018, writes Philip Woolner, joint managing partner at Cheffins. 

Following the upheaval of 2016 with the Brexit vote, its knock-on effects throughout 2017, by comparison 2018 has seen a solid but steady market, with healthy appetite for property across all sectors. 

The Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor, or CaMkOx arc, has seen greater profile this year having been mentioned in both the Spring Statement and the Autumn Budget. 

This driven emphasis from central Government and commitment from The Chancellor has helped to underpin the demand for all commercial property types locally as investors look to cash in on Cambridge’s continued dominance as one of the UK’s leading centres for R & D, tech and AI. 

The hope is that the development of the ‘brain belt’ will further ignite the UK’s prosperous R & D sector and help to increase knowledge sharing and talent between the two cities, whilst also unlocking a number of potential sites for development between the two university towns. 

In addition, the government’s focus on the knowledge economy has led to strong demand for investment property throughout the year as top-level funds look to include Cambridge within portfolios. 

This seems set to continue, particularly within the R & D and office markets, during 2019.

Increased devolved powers and funding for local infrastructure has given Mayor James Palmer the ability to drive Cambridge forward in its quest to be one of the UK economy’s success stories, no matter the outcome of Brexit negotiations. 

Mayor Palmer’s ambitious infrastructure projects are aimed at redressing the economic imbalance across the region in order to allow Cambridge to fulfil its potential as a global competitor alongside Silicon Valley, Boston, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Office and R & D

Against the backdrop of uncertainty, the office and R & D markets for the Cambridge Cluster have maintained a steady pace. The leading lights in the market have been newly-built developments which have seen a real focus of demand. 

Illustrations of this would be the popularity of 50/60 Station Road in the city centre and especially the Maurice Wilkes building on St John’s Innovation Park, which let up quickly against an increasing supply of good quality second hand space across the northern fringe with the new space being preferred despite higher rents.

Whilst 2018 seems to have felt slightly subdued in comparison to previous years, perhaps due to the looming spectre of Brexit and all its associated uncertainties, major tenants in the Cambridge such as Arm, Amazon and Microsoft have all either taken or are looking for additional space. 

Similarly, there are rumours that Huawei are on the verge of committing to the development of their own major research campus on the edge of the city, whilst Samsung is also looking to significantly increase the numbers of staff employed at St John’s Innovation Centre. 

Samsung is following on from notable others in the field, such as Microsoft, PROWLER.io and Five AI, all of which have cemented Cambridge as one of the UK’s leading locations for AI companies.

So it can be seen that one way or another and despite inevitable bumps along the way, future prospects remain good as the market is powered by demand from these burgeoning organisations.

Labs 

Whilst there has been significant investment into Cambridge startups and SMEs, a lack of addressable fitted space has led to a relatively muted lab market in 2018 in terms of take up. 

With lab fit-out costing anything up to £250-£300 per square foot, the traditional model for young or growing companies moving on from incubator space is to re-utilise fit out from larger companies and in turn move on into often pre-let space. 

However, currently there are few options for this method of expansion, which has led to an imbalance in the market at the moment. This should start to be redressed next year with new supply of this type coming into the market; at Chesterford Research Park work will start in January on the refurbishment of The Newnham Building to provide just under 40,000 sq ft of fitted space in up to four suites together with additional fitted space in the Gonville Building. 

Furthermore, works are on schedule to deliver over 100,000 sq ft of speculative new lab space in two buildings on the Babraham Research Campus by the end of Q1 2019, all of which indicates positive sentiment for the market next year. 

The consistent trend here will be the quality of environment on offer to allow these highly-competitive companies to recruit the best staff in the business.

Industrial

The industrial market is characterised by a lack of stock, both in city locations and on out of town business parks, which has led to rising rental and capital values throughout the sector. 

Headline rents for new-build industrial units over 5000 sq ft are now in the order of £8.75 -£10.00 per sq ft as evidenced by lettings during 2018 at Buckingway Business Park Swavesey, Cambridge Research Park and Newmarket Business Park. 

In the case of Newmarket Business Park, Cheffins completed three large lettings totalling over 70,000 sq ft at rents between £8.75 and £10 per sq ft.  

The boom in online shopping and the increased importance of third party logistics has led to continued investment in the shed market and this will only grow throughout the next 12 months. Investment yields on good quality industrial are now at 5-5.5 per cent.

There is likely to be additional focus placed on smaller, regional-sized warehouses in strategic locations in order to serve demand for online buying, logistics and storage. 

Brexit and its potential impact on import and export could also lead to further demand for warehousing in key locations, such as the East Coast Ports, and is likely to have a generally positive impact on the logistics market.

Retail

The retail market is seeing one of its most challenging cycles yet, with rental levels in many areas remaining static at best and with weak occupier demand. 

Many high street retailers are falling by the wayside as a result of high property overheads, including business rates, falling footfalls and, most fundamentally, competition from online businesses. 

This has created some opportunities for smaller multiples and independent traders to set up shop in prime and good secondary units. For example, it is interesting to see some of the secondary streets in Cambridge such as Trinity, Sussex, and Magdalene/Bridge Street bucking the national trend with several recent new arrivals, bringing niche offerings based on high levels of customer service, and creating an exciting tenant mix.

The picture is mixed across the country and across the region, with expanding towns and cities such as Cambridge and its necklace settlements faring well and remaining vibrant; however in many areas the picture is much bleaker. 

As a result, many investors have sought to offload high street retail assets en masse and we have seen much more investment property coming to the market during the year. 

This has brought opportunities for smaller investors to pick up well-priced properties, often with development, change of use or other asset management angles.

2019 looks set to see many more high street brands either adapt radically to face the new reality or perish in the wake of the online retailers.

The power of Cambridge UK MedTech innovation has been underlined by a $23.2 million Series B financing for Morphogen-IX.

The Cambridge University spin-out is developing bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The round was led by Medicxi alongside investments from Cambridge Innovation Capital and Cambridge Enterprise.

This investment will support formal preclinical development of its lead candidate, MGX292, and initiation of clinical trials by 2021. 

MGX292 is a protein-engineered variant of BMP9 that has proven highly efficacious and safe in extensive preclinical studies. MGX292 is the first agent with the potential to be truly disease-modifying and to transform the lives of patients with PAH.

Nick Morrell, Morphogen-IX co-founder and CEO, said: “This major investment, following closely on the nomination of MGX292 as our drug candidate, will support the critical next steps of preclinical development and take us all the way through to completion of Phase 2 studies over the next 3-4 years.

“MGX292 has major disease-modifying capability that is badly needed for patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension.”

David Grainger, chairman of the Morphogen-IX board and chief scientific adviser at Medicxi added: “The power of human genetics identifying the centrality of BMP9 in PAH, together with structure-driven engineering to create a protein that can be administered safely, places Morphogen-IX in a world-leading position to develop the first agent capable of halting, or even reversing, the progress of this terrible disease.

“We are working with many of world’s leading experts in PAH to get MGX292, already the subject of patent applications, into the clinic as quickly as possible.”

Kevin Johnson, partner at Medicxi, said MGX292 had the potential to transform the outlook for patients with PAH.

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: David Grainger

A company is only as good as its people. Whilst this phrase is widely recognised, so often it can be ignored by a business, particularly as it grows in size beyond perhaps its initial team.

Luckily, I’m proud to say that at Carter Jonas we hold our employees in the same high regard that we hold our clients, recognising that people who deliver the service are key to a successful business; essentially, good people are a precious commodity. This is one of the reasons that we invest so heavily in our graduate scheme and apprenticeship programme.  As a firm, we face the same challenge as any professional sports club, in attracting and retaining star players, but in the same way, we also look to recruit good people at the start of their careers to grow and nurture the potential stars of tomorrow.  

To qualify as a chartered surveyor graduates must pass the Assessment of Professional Competence, the dreaded APC. Twice a year the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) gather panels of ‘assessors’ who interview the candidates after, generally, an initial two years of on-the-job training. Over the course of the hour, the hopefuls will be grilled on their professional knowledge, experience and ethics. It can be brutal – as it is an oral exam there is nowhere to hide – and there is no escape until the hour is up.  

Support from experienced colleagues and a structured training programme is essential for success. Because of this, I’ve endeavoured to help those at the beginning of their careers, and I’m proud to say the training and support programme at Carter Jonas is one of the best. Trainee surveyors in our main hub offices rotate through a series of placements in different teams, to provide a wide a range of experience.

As well being supported throughout this process, in the run-up to the final test, they are given tailored guidance and advice on how to present to the panel; a process that includes mock interviews and constructive feedback to help ensure they are fully prepped.  

The resultant pass rate amongst our commercial surveying graduates is much higher than the 65% national average – consistently above 90%.  But success doesn’t come without effort, both Partners and trainees can spend hours together, over and above the four days a year of training courses we run. 

The cost of our time is an investment in the future, for which the returns are not only rewarding but beneficial to our business. If graduates have a varied and interesting two years of rotation they are more likely to identify the path that they would like to pursue once qualified. Additionally, having been supported and valued throughout their training period, they’re far more likely to stay at Carter Jonas rather than walk away once qualified.

Our clients also recognise as a strength the firm’s commitment to training. Having recently been instructed by MEPC as letting agent for Silverstone Park, Roz Bird, Commercial Director at the Park cited our investment in recruitment and our graduates, as well as our efforts to attract more women into the property industry, as one of the key factors that secured our appointment. The consideration for equality and diversity within their workforce makes business sense to MEPC. 

Finally, along with all the good business reasons in doing what we do, there’s no denying the buzz that we get from hearing our graduates say “I passed!” This year the Cambridge team has welcomed five people on it graduate and apprenticeship programmes and I wish them every success as they continue on their journey to professional qualification.

www.carterjonas.co.uk/

As Cambridge’s business sector continues to grow, significant new wealth is being generated in the city, writes Lucinda Brown, partner and head of Contentious Trusts and Probate at law firm Hewitsons. 

With plans on the horizon for further large-scale developments, such as those relating to the Oxbridge Corridor, this trend seems likely to continue. Together with rising house prices, this has led, and will probably continue to lead, to an increase in the value of many private individuals’ estates. One potential consequence of this is that it may also increase the likelihood of claims being made against these estates.

In the UK, testamentary freedom – the freedom of individuals to dispose of their property upon death as they see fit – remains paramount, as shown by recent rulings. However, claims against an estate can still arise when there is a dispute among family members about how their relative’s assets should be divided upon death.

In recent years, an increasing number of these claims have made it all the way up to the High Court. This trend also remains upward. There are several possible reasons for it, none of which Cambridge is immune to. 

For example, one is the increasingly diverse nature of families in the UK, with many more now including stepchildren, adopted children, children of civil partnerships and so on. 

Another is the country’s ageing population, which is making illnesses such as dementia more common. In some cases, this may raise questions about testamentary capacity – that is, capacity to make a Will.

Claims against an estate are often costly to resolve and can delay the estate’s administration, so they are best avoided. Unfortunately, it is impossible to entirely eliminate the possibility of a claim being brought. There are, however, several ways to lower the chances of a claim and minimise the potential disruption to the administration of the estate.  

A family investment company (FIC), family partnership, discretionary trust or Will (accompanied by a Letter of Wishes) are all useful vehicles for passing assets in the way you wish to. Each has its own particular points to consider.

An FIC is a corporate structure, designed to work in the same way as a discretionary trust that enables you, as the founder, to pass assets to the next generation through use of a limited company whilst retaining control of the assets.

Take, for example, parents wishing to pass assets to their children but who do not wish them to have access to the assets at a young age. The parents would own shares which had rights to take the investment decisions in relation to the assets, and no right to dividends, and the children would hold shares that had no rights to make investment decisions but full entitlement to dividends or return on capital (subject to the approval of the parents). 

These structures can be more tax efficient than trusts, as corporation tax rates apply rather than inheritance tax rates, but specialist tax advice should always be sought at the outset as there is still potential for gifts of shares in the FIC to be caught by inheritance tax. 

A limited company can be set up fairly quickly and inexpensively and the governing rules set out in the company’s articles of association, with more sensitive matters dealt with in a separate shareholders’ agreement.  

Family partnerships are a similar idea, but, as the name suggests, they involve setting up a partnership, rather than a company. This method brings in the next generation and allows parents to transfer assets to their children immediately, being taxed at the current rate, while retaining control of the assets during the lifetime. This can be particularly useful if the value of the assets is likely to increase over time.

Discretionary trusts, meanwhile, have traditionally been the most popular method of passing down wealth. They are particularly useful for individuals who foresee that a dispute may arise among family members after death, and as an alternative to making no provision whatsoever for somebody who might be eligible to bring a claim to challenge the dispositions in a Will. 

Those who may potentially bring a claim against the estate can be named as objects, or beneficiaries, of the trust, so the potential claimant cannot say that no provision whatsoever has been made for them. 

The trustees will have power to exercise their discretion over the fund in a potential claimant’s favour, which may be an effective way of buying off a nuisance claim which has weak merit.

With a Will, a testator can set out precisely how he or she wishes the estate to be divided. However, family members and dependants may still bring claims against the estate, alleging that the Will is invalid or that insufficient financial provision has been made for them. 

If you are proposing to make no provision for a family member (and often there are good reasons for this), it is recommended that the Will is accompanied by a Letter of Wishes giving objective, brief reasons for the decision.  

Evidentially, this is a useful document if disputes arise on death and, although not bound by it, the Court will take into account the Letter of Wishes.

At Hewitsons, we have a large team of solicitors experienced in all private wealth matters, as well as a specialist team equipped to resolve disputes at highly competitive rates, should they arise. 

Our Contentious Trusts and Probate team has been consistently rated as a top tier firm by the Legal 500 guide and each of its members belongs to the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS). The team is also recognised in the Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2018 as one of only two firms with this specialism in East Anglia.

However you choose to protect your estate, the bottom line is that the more discussion and planning that take place between family members during the lifetime, the better. Do not leave this until it is too late. Surprise and shock amongst family members are a catalyst for disputes.

• For more information, please call Hewitsons’ Cambridge office in Newmarket Road, or visit  www.hewitsons.com

The relentless search for holy grail technologies for safe autonomous and nextgen vehicles has been bolstered by Cambridge trio Linaro, Arm and Huawei.

Linaro, an open source collaborative engineering organisation, has joined forces with Japan-based intelligent vehicle technology company Tier IV, Inc., and US-based autonomous mobility systems software company Apex.AI to form the Autoware Foundation. Arm and Huawei are adding technology and tech muscle to the alliance.

The non-profit organisation has been created to initiate, grow, and fund open source collaborative engineering Autoware projects, starting with Autoware.AI, Autoware.Auto, and Autoware.IO. 

Autoware.AI is the original Autoware project started in 2015 by Shinpei Kato at Nagoya University that is being used globally by more than 100 companies in more than 30 vehicles today. 

Autoware.Auto is a rewrite of Autoware using ROS 2.0 for certifiable software stacks used in vehicles. Autoware.IO focuses on heterogeneous platform support based on 96Boards products, vehicle control interfaces as well as a collection of third-party software and hardware tools to help deliver the core values of Autoware.

Examples of Autoware.IO projects include simulators, device drivers for sensors, by-wire controllers for vehicles, and hardware-independent programs for SoC boards.

Shinpei Kato from Tier IV and the University of Tokyo, Jan Becker from Apex.AI and Stanford University and Yang Zhang from Linaro 96Boards and the Chinese Academy of Sciences AI Institute have together formed the founding board of directors for the Autoware Foundation. 

A technical steering committee is being formed from representatives of the Premium Members to drive the technical direction of the projects. Founding Premium Members include Cambridge tech trio Linaro 96Boards, Arm and Huawai, Apex.AI, AutoCore, AutonomouStuff, Kalray, LG, Parkopedia, StreetDrone, Tier IV and Velodyne. 

The premium members are supported by founding Industrial and academic & non-profit members including eSOL, Intel, Nagoya University, OSRF (Open Source Robotics Foundation), RoboSense, Semi Japan, SiFive, TRI-AD (Toyota Research Institute Advanced Development, Inc), and Xilinx.

Mark Hambleton, vice-president open source software, Arm said: “As we work towards the mass deployment of safe, fully autonomous vehicles, we need to ensure that automotive players have the ability to influence technical direction and implement platform support for their solutions.
“This partnership will allow the Autoware ecosystem to further collaborate on certifiable software stacks for secure, safe, and efficient next-generation vehicles.”

Jerry Su, chief architect of Huawei Autonomous Driving. said: “We are thrilled to be joining the Autoware Foundation. Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider.

“We advocate customer-centricity, dedication, and continuous innovation based on customer needs. Collaboration with Autoware enables us to work with the community to develop the self-driving vehicle software that accelerates the industry growth and benefits our customers.”

 • Image courtesy of Arm

Cambridge startup techspert.io has secured £1 million in second round funding for its pioneering expert-finding and evaluating technology.

The round was led by Cambridge angel Simon Thorpe who has already demonstrated the Midas touch. He was an investor in Swiftkey and Vocal IQ – Cambridge-founded businesses bought by Google and Apple, respectively, for a combined $350 million.

The new round was also backed by Angel CoFund, a VC fund that co-invests alongside angel investors. John Spearman, GW Asia Capital Ltd and Adrian Lloyd also participated, and all three non-exec directors from round one have re-invested.

techspert.io has developed the first search engine capable of scouring the internet for experts available to answer the complex questions of all types of business. 

Quick access to expertise on demand is essential for growth and progress in everything from rare disease research to the development of sustainable fuels.

The startup plans to eliminate companies’ current dependency on established ‘expert networks’ like that of current market-leader, US-based Gerson Lehrman Group. 

The techspert.io AI pinpoints niche specialists who may not be members of current networks, in any given country, and quantitatively evaluates expertise in a move to create greater objectivity and transparency.

The team will now build on its profitable start in the healthcare and life sciences sectors to target the $5 billion ‘economy of knowledge’ – the global spend on sourcing and speaking to experts across all sectors and geographies. It is changing its name from Biotechspert to techspert.io as a result.

David Holden-White, co-founder and managing director of techspert.io said: “Our vision is for any company with a thorny question to get a better answer, quicker. Before techspert.io, companies seeking specialist knowledge typically had to use experts signed up to networks, leading to a high degree of self-selection. 

“Existing service providers generally use employees to search partial databases manually on behalf of clients, and experts often have to confirm their own suitability for a task.

“Our platform can scour more than 150 million experts in minutes to pinpoint and connect companies to highly-specific expertise. That’s a pool of experts around 30 times larger than they can access through any single expert network. 

“What’s more, the AI enables techspert to learn continuously, adjusting its ranking as it perfects its ability to recognise genuine expertise, and to evolve as experts do.”

Simon Thorpe added: “techspert.io’s potential to use truly specialist expertise to power more informed decisions and create faster progress is immense. The company has already proved its capability and market fit by satisfying one sector. This investment will accelerate techspert.io’s plans to revolutionise expert input across many other industry sectors.”

Clients of the groundbreaking service include in Europe, PwC, IQVIA and Sofinnova Partners, while ZS Associates is a US user.

Co-founders Graham Mills and David Holden-White set up the company in 2016, having found themselves at a loss trying to find healthcare and life sciences industry-specific expertise without contacts or significant budget. Several hours spent trawling the web led to a deep frustration that they discovered others shared. 

In setting up techspert.io their goal was to democratise access to expertise across the globe. Clients are charged for the time they spend speaking to experts, with techspert.io taking a percentage of this charge, or can opt for a subscription to the service.

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: David Holden-White and Graham Mills, co-founders of techspert.io

Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca are opening a new innovation hothouse in the Cambridge science & technology cluster to maximise the potential of functional genomics in the discovery and development of new drugs for patients with cancer.

The hub will be based at the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge and operationalised through Cancer Research UK’s Therapeutic Discovery Laboratories – the charity’s in-house drug discovery unit focused on establishing drug discovery alliances with industry.

Specialist staff employed by both organisations at the centre will facilitate collaborative projects.

The partnership will explore in more detail the function and interaction of genes and proteins in cancer and apply new genome-altering technologies such as CRISPR, to create sophisticated models of the disease for research.

The centre will be a dedicated world-class resource for AstraZeneca and Cancer Research UK’s academics and alliance partners working at all stages of translational research, from target discovery and validation, to assessing novel drug combinations.

By combining the experience and expertise of both organisations in cancer biology and functional genomics, including CRISPR technologies, it’s hoped that this state-of-the-art facility will help deliver new treatments to patients much faster.

Building on the transformative potential of CRISPR for gene editing and understanding cancer biology, this centre will be a major driver for the use of CRISPR in drug discovery and development in the UK and is being established with the expert guidance of Professor Greg Hannon, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

He said: “This new centre will be a huge asset to the UK cancer research community and will accelerate the development of new treatments for people with cancer. “After two decades of effort, we’re making fast progress but we’re still only just beginning to tap into the full potential of CRISPR and to understand how this is applied alongside other functional genomics approaches.

“As we develop high-quality standardised techniques through the centre, we can create more sophisticated and powerful biological models of disease, handle larger and more complex data sets, and identify successful cancer drug targets with better accuracy.”

The Functional Genomics Centre will be a hub of expertise in genetic screens, cancer models, CRISPR tool design and computational approaches to big data. These techniques can be used to understand the genetic changes contributing to cancer development and to identify and validate potential drug targets.

CRISPR technologies are also improving our ability to model disease systems, allowing researchers to accurately predict how these new treatments will work in patients, and identify genetic drivers of drug resistance. While researchers from both Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca will have independent access to the centre facilities, it’s also anticipated that it will be a catalyst for future collaboration.

Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation, said: “This exciting new initiative will give leading Cancer Research UK scientists and our alliance partners access to the latest in CRISPR technology.

“As we move into an era of personalised medicine, we’ve reached a turning point in our ability to harness powerful technologies in the pursuit of targeted cancer therapies. We hope that this will translate into urgently needed new therapies for patients with hard to treat cancers, such as lung, pancreatic, oesophageal and brain tumours.”

Dr Mene Pangalos, executive vice-president, Innovative Medicines & Early Development, AstraZeneca, said: “The best science doesn’t happen in isolation which is why AstraZeneca is committed to advancing innovative science through collaboration.

“This new centre of excellence with Cancer Research UK will combine our expertise in functional genomics and CRISPR technology to identify new biological pathways driving disease and will accelerate the development of new cancer medicines for patients.”

Preliminary research is due to begin in January 2019, with laboratory work expected to start in the second half of 2019.
Under the terms of the agreement both Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca will own outputs of their respective projects with no associated option rights.

Each partner will have equal access to the centre’s screening capacity and joint projects will be identified on a case-by-case basis by mutual need.

Seven technology businesses born or rooted in Cambridge have made a new elite of Britain’s fastest growing businesses – the Top 100, created by Cambridge equity crowdfunder SyndicateRoom.

CMR Surgical, developing a next-generation surgical robot, was highest placed of the local fraternity in sixth. It is also the highest ranking medical devices business.

Improbable is seventh, Darktrace 34th, Healx 45th, Cytora 48th, Telensa 66th and Cydar 77th.

Martin Frost, CEO of CMR Surgical, said: “This is great recognition of a transformational year for CMR Surgical. The support from our investors, both new and existing, and the hard-work of our world-class team, has enabled the rapid growth of our company in 2018.

“This all gets us closer to our goal of delivering the benefits of minimal access surgery to all who need it.  We are now firmly focused on 2019 and launching Versius to the NHS and the wider world.”

The SyndicateRoom listing comes just months after CMR Surgical announced a record-breaking Series B funding round of $100 million – the largest ever Series B raise by a medical devices company in Europe.

The company has more than doubled in size over the past year, now employing over 250 people, and is moving into a 55,000 sq ft global headquarters on the outskirts of Cambridge.

Improbable was Cambridge’s 15th billion dollar business. It makes distributed simulation software for video games and corporate use.

The virtual reality sensation secured a $500m investment round led by Arm’s Japanese owner SoftBank earlier this year. It was founded by Cambridge computer science alumni Herman Narula (CEO) and Rob Whitehead (CTO) in 2012.

Its SpatialOS operating system is transforming capabilities across sectors as diverse as game development, smart city design, including transport networks, telecoms and monitoring of autonomous vehicles.

Darktrace is Cambridge’s most recent billion dollar company and is gaining increasing global traction with cyber security technology based on Cambridge University IP.

Healx, specialising in re-formulating treatments for sufferers of rare diseases, is leveraging an AI platform – HealNet. The technology enables highly parallel and large-scale rare disease drug discovery, significantly reducing time, cost and risk.

HealNet was built and is maintained using a variety of machine learning methods applied to a wide range of data types from both publicly available and exclusive sources. These include scientific literature, patents, clinical trials, disease symptoms, drug targets, multi-omics data and chemical structures. HealNet is enhanced by a team of rare disease experts, patient advocates, pharmacologists, clinicians and scientific curators.

Cytora,founded and spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2014, is building new foundations for commercial insurance, enabling insurers to underwrite more accurately and deliver fairer prices to their customers. Its goal is to elevate the insurance industry to a new standard where insurance is simple, fast, and transparent, built on a foundation of tractable data.

Telensa is already internationally successful. The company makes wireless smart city applications, helping cities, regional authorities and utilities around the world save energy, work smarter and deliver more joined up services.

Cydar, based in Barrington, is working to improve care in the operating room. Co-founders Tom Carrell, a vascular surgeon and Graeme Penney, an imaging scientist, formed Cydar in 2012 to solve a true clinical problem – the need for better visualisation of the anatomy during endovascular surgery.

Since then, Carrell and Penney have been turning world-leading image processing research into a global first in cloud-based healthcare.

SyndicateRoom’s Top 100 report uses a unique methodology which analysed valuations over time to rank the UK’s top private companies.

Green energy supplier Bulb tops this year’s league table, having multiplied its valuation by 351x since 2015; 67 per cent of winners are based in London and only 12 per cent of companies have female founders.

Francesca O’Brien, head of private markets at SyndicateRoom, said:“It’s always great to see such a wide array of exciting companies leading the nation – but there is some cause for concern.

“The UK’s historical status as Europe’s tech hub is based in part on the easy access London startups have to VC financing. Brexit is happening, and it’s already affecting the level of funding available for our homegrown businesses. If the UK wants to remain at the edge of innovation, we need to find a new way to collaborate.”

SyndicateRoom is an online investment platform which has helped 140+ early-stage UK businesses secure more than £140 million in funding through its investor-led equity crowdfunding model.

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group in Cambridge has won a contract worth more than £100 million to deliver nextgen containers for the Dutch Armed Forces.

The deal has been awarded  by the Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation and is central to a major programme to update the Dutch Armed Forces with new vehicles, containers and support equipment.

Marshall will be providing more than 1400 container systems over the next five years. These include command and control shelters, workshops, controlled atmosphere and basic stores units, together with a 14-year fully integrated availability support package.

As part of the design work Marshall is providing a new expandable container which uses lighter materials but maintains the strength of its in-service Matrix Expandable products.

Alistair McPhee, chief executive of Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, said: “Winning this contract is a major milestone in the strategic development of our Land Systems business and emphasises our capability to manage major programmes which benefits not only Marshall but local suppliers.

“During both the implementation and support phases of this contract we will be working closely with Dutch industry not only as part of the supply chain but also as part of the development of our business across Europe.”

Marshall will workwith a range of suppliers during all stages of the contract and its subsidiary company, Marshall Aerospace Netherlands BV based in Leiden, which will be providing engineering and supply chain management and acting as a focus for the contract.

The contract comprises two main elements, the production of the various containers and a full support programme.

The latter encompasses a full availability-based fleet management package, ensuring that the units are maintained to the latest standards, together with a significant training commitment.

Marshall has had a presence in the Netherlands since 1995 when it provided command and control shelters.

Subsequently it has supported the country’s C-130 fleet, provided ambulances, flat racks, fitted out the Boxer AFV ambulances and, most recently, been contracted to provide an advanced Medevac pallet, which is currently in final development.