St John's Innovation Centre facts for kids
St John's Innovation Centre (SJIC) is a special place in Cambridge, England, that helps new businesses grow. It's like a home for many science and technology companies, giving them a place to work and support to succeed.
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How It Started
The idea for this innovation centre came from Dr. Chris Johnson. He worked for St John's College, Cambridge, and was interested in using the college's land to help new businesses. In 1984, he visited places in the US that supported new companies.
When he came back, he gathered a small team. They planned the St John's Innovation Centre. A report in 1985, called The Cambridge Phenomenon, showed that investing in high-tech businesses in Cambridge was a good idea.
The St John's Innovation Park was then built on land owned by St John's College since 1534. The Innovation Centre itself opened in 1987. It was the first centre in Europe to focus on helping businesses that rely on knowledge and new ideas. It is also the oldest place like this in the United Kingdom.
Because the first centre was so successful, more buildings were added. Dirac House opened in 1989, named after Paul Dirac, a Nobel Prize winner from St John's College. The Jeffreys Building opened in 1990, named after Sir Harold Jeffreys, another important person from the college. More buildings were added in 2001. The land still belongs to St John's College.
Today, all the buildings together have a lot of space, about 53,000 square feet, for businesses to use.
What Happens Here?
From the very beginning, SJIC aimed to help businesses that use new ideas and technology. It offers them flexible office spaces and management support. This support helps the companies and others develop their businesses.
The buildings have offices, workshops, and labs that can be changed to fit different needs. Companies working there can also use shared areas. These include a reception desk with staff, rooms for meetings and conferences, and a restaurant.
SJIC also gives business advice to the companies that rent space there. It helps the wider business community by working with groups like the University of Cambridge. The centre is also part of a European project called Achieve More. This project helps different innovation centres work together across Europe.
The innovation park has been a member of UK Science Parks Association since 1987. It has also been part of UK Business Incubation since 1999.
SJIC also helps new technology businesses through its Cambridge Enterprise Conferences. These events bring together successful business people, advisors, and university experts. They offer useful advice to companies that are just starting out.
Who's in Charge?
David Gill is the current managing director of St John's Innovation Centre. He started in this role in December 2008. Before him, Walter Herriot was the director for 18 years. The first director was Bill Bolton.
Where Is It?
St John's Innovation Centre is about 3 kilometers north of Cambridge city centre. It is close to a main road called the A14. It is also only about 700 meters from Cambridge Science Park.
The centre is located in an area known as Silicon Fen. This name is used for the high-tech business area around Cambridge.
Working Together
St John's Innovation Centre started the Cambridge Technopole Group. This is a group of organizations that help businesses in the Cambridge area. The group wants to make business support services better, especially for technology companies. Other members include Cambridge Science Park and the Babraham Institute.
SJIC has also written annual reports about the Cambridge Technopole. These reports look at how technology businesses are growing in the area.
University Connections
Since it started, SJIC has built strong connections with the University of Cambridge. It has helped the university find new business ideas from its research. It also helped these new companies get started and find funding.
The Centre works with the Judge Business School to provide information for research. It also helped set up the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre. SJIC also helped the Cambridge University Engineering Department create the Institute for Manufacturing.
Since 2003, SJIC has been involved with the i10 project. This project connects all the universities and higher education places in the East of England. SJIC's job is to help these places share their new technologies with businesses.
The Companies Inside
Most of the companies at the centre are new or just starting out. They work on many different cutting-edge technologies. However, some companies have been there for a long time. They keep offices at SJIC even if they have grown and opened offices elsewhere.
Around 60 companies are located at the centre, employing over 300 people. Over five years, more than 88% of the companies at SJIC are still in business. This is much higher than the average for other businesses in Cambridge (about 50%) and the UK (about 45%).
Unlike some other innovation centres, St John's Innovation Centre also has companies that offer services to its tenants. These include marketing, accountancy, and legal services. This was a planned decision to create a varied business community within the building.
SJIC also offers a "virtual tenancy" package called the Star Service. This lets small companies use SJIC as their business address. It also handles their phone calls, faxes, and mail. It gives them special access to meeting rooms and business support. Many start-up companies have used this service before becoming full tenants.
Companies That Grew Up Here
Many successful companies started their journey at St John's Innovation Centre. Here are a few examples:
- Autonomy Corporation plc: A big software company.
- Jagex: They make popular online computer games like RuneScape.
- Jobstream Group Plc: They develop software for managing trusts and companies around the world.
- Owlstone Nanotech: They create tiny chemical sensors.
- Plastic Logic: They develop new e-readers using special plastic electronics.
- Red Gate Software: They make software tools for people who manage databases.
- Technetix Group: They make equipment for broadband networks.
- True Knowledge: They developed an "Internet Answer Engine."
- Zeus Technology: A software development company.
