Focus North is always on the lookout for learning opportunities and collaborations beyond our ‘patch’ so we were delighted to receive an invitation to visit M-SParc in North Wales.
Our partners at Dounreay had recently made the same trip, and returned full of enthusiasm for the pioneering science park on the rural island of Aglesea.
We wanted to see for ourselves, and one rather epic train ride later, we arrived for a packed itinerary.
The building itself is striking, surrounded by a solar array and cutting a modern figure against the mountainous backdrop. Inside, there’s a spacious atrium and community cafe. We arrived just as the Welsh Government was setting up for an event, and left while primary school pupils filtered in for a STEM workshop – clearly the centre offers a strong focal point for science and innovation at every level.
M-SParc is a science park with the aim ‘to ignite ambition and innovation for a sustainable Wales’. It was founded with support from Bangor University and the Welsh Government. Today, more than 50 businesses have offices here and another 30 hold ‘virtual’ tenancies giving them access to support services.
The sheer breadth of those services is impressive: from co-ordinated STEM workshops, to digital and carbon audits, access to investors and meeting and event space. We had a very warm welcome from the team at M-SParc and had a chance to explore the centre, including meeting some of their tenants: including a company working on virtual and augmented reality, and one delivering AI products.
From there, a field trip to see north Wales’ nuclear decommissioning site, Magnox, and some key development sites on the island, including an area for testing and launching tidal arrays.
The visit brought together our own thinking around several strands of our programme. The similarities – in terms of our rural location, nuclear heritage and renewables sector – were clear.
As we continue to develop our skills plan for the region, our train journey home was full of discussion around how we can pull it all together in a similarly collaborative and innovative way.
Could north Highland host its own low carbon innovation park? What might that look like and how would we get it up and running?
Since our trip to Wales in January we have further developed our ideas, and we look forward to giving stakeholders a sneak preview at the Focus North Conference ’24.
Watch this space!