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Noticed this chap endorsing Alistair Smith on LinkedIn..
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemessenger
Interesting…….
If you really want to level up Britain, educate people so that they can fulfill their potential, and build the infrastructure and economic environment, that empowers them to forge long term careers in businesses in thriving regional hubs – rather than jump on a fast train out.
Dr Alastair Smith is founder and CEO of Avacta Group plc.
recognise where the skills gaps lie in the UK and invest appropriately. It’s practical, honest and directly addresses imbalance by helping all young people to find decently paid jobs and be part of levelling up.
My second ingredient is the creation of regional “sector ecosystems” – hubs of growing small and medium sized businesses creating jobs and generating profits – that create a network of opportunities to provide long term career development through movement within a region. The Silicon Valley concept if you like.
Take my diagnostics and therapeutics businesses, with deep roots in Yorkshire, as an example. The company was originally spun out from Leeds University and today the diagnostics division remains very much a Yorkshire business, doing vital research and manufacturing in the area, and employing a talented local team.
But there are few life sciences business in the North and this absence of an ecosystem to provide career development means we lose some ambitious people, in whose training and development we’ve invested. They are naturally drawn to where life sciences is buzzing in the UK, around Cambridge, Oxford and London, so feel they have to disrupt their lives, get on their bikes and head south to progress. I’m a passionate believer in Yorkshire but in 2015 when we started Avacta’s therapeutics division, we had very little choice but to set up in the south. There was no debate because there was such a limited pool of talent in the north of England from which we could recruit the drug developers that we need.
A glance at the life sciences job market offers clear supporting evidence. Half of all employment in the sector is located in the south east compared with around 20% in the north. New Scientist currently lists five times as many vacancies in the south east and east as it does in Yorkshire/Humberside, the north east and the north west combined.
Government can help to correct these structural imbalances and encourage more centres of excellence with smart incentives for similar businesses to invest and locate in regions outside the south east.
Ecosystems providing potential for career progression and long-term security will motivate talented and ambitious people to stay in a region. That will in turn help the regional sectors to grow, boosting local economies and communities. That’s what levelling up looks like.
My third ingredient is great regional transport connectivity. Policymakers are not wrong to focus on the importance of rail and road links as drivers of progress but in my view HS2-scale north-south infrastructure only serves to re-emphasise the unbalancing pull of the south and south east. Regional transport connecting local communities to hubs around cities like Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle strongly underpins local economic growth and can give a vital boost to the ecosystem concept that will provide long-term opportunities within an area.
If you really want to level up Brit
Here you go Tim
For anyone inclined to engage in a spot of political buzzword bingo, ‘levelling up’ has become the absolute sure-fire bet of our times. It’s the measure by which Boris Johnson wants his Government to be defined. So, inevitably, the phrase features prominently – and repeatedly – in almost every ministerial speech, broadcast interview and by-lined column.
The wholly laudable idea seems to be that this is not just a slogan but a transformative new value system, a consistent, coherent force for change that runs through policy programmes like the lettering in a stick of Blackpool – or Scarborough – rock.
The PM pledged to ‘level up’ no less than 36 times in a keynote speech over the summer and last week his address to the CBI was scripted around the same potent theme, until Peppa Pig intervened.
At October’s Tory conference, Michael Gove – the first ever Secretary of State for Levelling Up – summarised the philosophy as a determination to do something about the fact that while talent is spread equally across our country, opportunity is not. Hear, hear!
As the founder of a proudly Yorkshire-based life sciences business, with an important division in the South as well, I’d endorse that observation. Now the important question is exactly what you do about it – and how?
For many there’s a knee-jerk tendency to reach for massive infrastructure spending as the answer. No surprise then that there was a chorus of condemnation of the recent decision not to proceed with the Yorkshire branch of HS2. Critics argued vociferously that this was a betrayal that undermined the ‘levelling up’ commitment. While I admit there would have been some (modest) benefit to trimming 30-40 minutes off the journey from London to my company Avacta’s Leeds HQ, I’m far from convinced rebalancing Britain is about multi-billion pound rail links.
To my mind gargantuan public projects are not the most effective way to deliver durable change to the opportunity imbalance between North and South. There’s more than one route to levelling up and my recipe for long term progress would have three key ingredients.
First of all we need to re-think our approach to education – one area of public spending where we’re arguably under investing with barely 5% of national income committed to the next generation’s future prospects. Rethinking means recognising that if the purpose of schooling is to give everyone the capacity to realise their potential, giving all young people the opportunity to shine, then that is not going to be achieved by pushing everyone towards university. We should consider much more carefully the diverse aptitudes of young people and forget the idea that if you don’t pursue an “academic” subject then you are somehow failing. So, if we are serious about equipping young people, with a wide variety of talents, to find fulfilling and rewarding careers, then we should encourage parity of esteem between academic and vocational education and also re
Also shared on Al's LinkedIn page
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alastair-smith-1b4b9111_levelling-up-the-three-part-recipe-for-making-activity-6873680301244063744-ErBI/
I thought it was strange as Al doesn't seem to use LinkedIn at all. I've also noticed that he has updated his biography as well........
Founder and Chief Executive of Avacta Group plc, an AIM listed biotech, with a market capitalisation of c. £300M.
Extensive experience of building early stage businesses within Avacta Group during fifteen years as a public company CEO. Excellent communicator and presenter of growth company investment opportunities. An effective team builder and business leader capable of delivering growth, and change when necessary, whilst maintaining a strong and positive culture within a business.
Significant management, strategic planning and transactional experience having led the public and private M&A activities of the Group since the IPO on AIM which was completed via a reverse merger.
Well known in the UK public markets, a respected and trusted executive with many years experience of investor relations in the UK, Europe and US. Successfully delivered multiple follow-on fund raisings for the Group totalling over £120m.
A scientist by training with a degree and PhD in Physics from Manchester University. Following a period of working in the US, returned in 1995 to take up an academic position at Leeds University. Became Professor of Molecular Biophysics at the age of 38, and over a ten years period, through close collaboration with life scientists, built one of the leading biophysics research groups in Europe before leaving an academic career in 2007 to focus full time on delivering value to Avacta shareholders.
Passionate about building successful life science businesses based on world-class science and great teams.
Project FabXS – “Development of a diagnostic kit for the quantification of serum biomarkers using fluorescent affimer binders
https://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/482750/FTRSOIII-FABXS-29.11.2021.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfeL2ccMO0
This week features 'This week features 'Using Affimers and finding patterns in super-resolution images' with Invited Speaker Prof Michelle Peckham from Leeds University.
Unbelievable news this morning and a massive hint that AVA6000 is indeed working as expected in human.
For me this is better news than HUA as the opportunity with Precision is way way beyond Covid testing.
What a great start to the week.
Had a feeling that was going to be announced.
Government pulling back from free testing, private market finally to get going in the UK.
Great news for Avacta and Medusa19 though, going to be a lot of spare capacity available for hire too.
https://avacta.com/sitemap_index.xml
Terms and conditions updated this evening.
Possibly these page - updated November 2021
https://avacta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ALS-Terms-and-Conditions-of-Purchase-of-Goods-and-Services-updated-November-2021.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/braulio-catutula-71189776_the-affidx-sars-cov-2-antigen-lateral-flow-activity-6868452244057006080-XH49
Interesting a port office in Mozambique sharing a post about AffiDX. Unless of course he’s had a shipment come in from Mologic?
Alright it’s guesswork, but the agreement between Mologic and Avacta did include making AffiDX available to LMIC’s.
Thanks for sharing Ninkynonk.
This looks an interesting space for Affimers, Avacta does seem to be making some moves in this area. I posted about an interesting addition to the team on Twitter a few weeks ago…….
https://twitter.com/lee_williams97/status/1455182226426056705?s=21
There’s a video from Dr Ajman on there about the benefits of Affimers in this area.
Thanks Soleboy.
As I said yesterday, speaking to Medusa19 is a much more fruitful exercise than speaking to Avacta at present. I think some well respected posters have covered this subject fairly well so will leave it there if I may.
Let’s see what the week brings shall we.
Wow that’s some great deep dive research Muck.
Apart from the Peter Whitehurst/Agile LS info, that’s all new to me. I would definitely recommend focusing your research on Medusa19 though, lots going on in the background.
Though I’m fairly certain news will break in the next few days that will uncover everything that has been happening.
As I said yesterday, the M19 team have huge ambitions which is only good for Avacta shareholders……
Not codswallop at all Muck, some great research there pal.
Agile clearly awaiting a test, maybe with HUA…..
https://www.agilelifesciences.com/covid-19-travel-testing
“Is Medoflow real? That is the question for the weakend”
That’s not the question for the weekend, question is…..
What is the limit of ambition of the team behind 1 of the world most successful e-commerce platforms teaming up with one of the most exciting diagnostics companies globally?
I’ll answer…..it’s much much bigger than just Covid!!!