The often quoted “No man is an Island”, which in essence speaks to the fact that humans need connections and community to thrive, rings just as true for businesses.
Success can be shaped as much by environment as by strategy.
There are numerous studies out there which show that companies based on innovation campuses or in science parks tend to outperform those located elsewhere. They point out higher survival rates for start-ups towards 88% versus around 50 % as well as stronger growth in sales, employment, and patent activity.
Across the UK, business campuses are thus unsurprisingly increasingly recognised not simply as places to locate a company, but as environment that enable growth, reduce isolation and create practical advantage for businesses at different stages of development.
However, this doesn’t go for just any co-working space. Sector focused campuses like Rothamsted Enterprises make a positive difference because the benefits of working side-by-side are amplified. Businesses are not just co-located – they are co-located with purpose.
The Rothamsted campus brings together a diverse mix of organisations working across bio based agri food and environmental sciences from early stage companies through to more established businesses and the business that support them – all operating with a shared sector context. This helps enable:
• A common technical language and understanding• Greater relevance in pure learning and collaboration
• Faster routes to trusted partnerships and expertise
• Stronger alignment between research commercialisation and market need
This is extremely helpful for startups, but also for established organisations that engage in anything from early experimentation through to scale up and market deployment
Being surrounded by businesses working in related fields creates opportunities that go beyond formal partnerships. Proximity makes it easier to share insight sense, check ideas, identify complementary capabilities and respond to challenges quickly.
And we are proud of the community we have and continue to build. In our most recent campus survey, all businesses reported collaborating with other ventures or research groups on site. This highlights the role of co-location in enabling real day-to-day collaboration.
But there’s more to the decision about being on a campus than can easily be shown in statistics and numbers. Beyond the data there’s something else, maybe even more important – in the human value of being part of a connected community.
Starting and scaling or running a business, particularly in science and technology-led sectors, can be an isolating, experience. Founders and small teams often navigate technical, commercial and regulatory challenges simultaneously often with little to no support. Leadership teams are balancing multiple pressures from customer needs and cash flow to staffing and compliance with limited experience or opportunities to engage with peers who understand requirements in the sector. Great campuses help address this by creating living social environments where you are surrounded by people facing challenges that are similar to yours. This sense of community is key in building confidence and momentum, and makes it easier to ask questions, share experience and learn from others, which will support the people as much as the innovation outcomes.
The value of a campus isn’t only about facilities or location – although those are extremely important – It is also about being part of a community where businesses and the people within can connect, learn from one another and feel less isolated as they grow
Krista Friss
Strategic Innovation and Partnerships Manager
