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Silicon Fen is an important tech centre and coupled with Oxford and London makes for a world class collaboration between academia, tech, bioscience, pharma, finance and a host of other areas, and is up there with the best in the world.
It depends on where you want to set the bar for "best in the world". If you were actually seriously talking about research as a primary metric, then the Golden Triangle is very good, but would still fall short of the Bay Area which would be a much smaller region--I guess if you start really expanding out geographically, then there's something there with Davis, Sacramento, Merced, and Santa Cruz as cities with prominent research institutions but the bulk would still be in the Bay Area. The Golden Triangle would still place over hundreds of metropolitan areas or large regions in the world--just wouldn't be at the same level of the Bay Area though.
But again, I don't think that's the same as education.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-05-2021 at 01:41 PM..
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It depends on where you want to set the bar for "best in the world". If you were actually seriously talking about research as a primary metric, then the Golden Triangle is very good, but would still fall short of the Bay Area which would be a much smaller region--I guess if you start really expanding out geographically, then there's something there with Davis, Sacramento, Merced, and Santa Cruz as cities with prominent research institutions but the bulk would still be in the Bay Area. The Golden Triangle would still place over hundreds of metropolitan areas or large regions in the world--just wouldn't be at the same level of the Bay Area though.
But again, I don't think that's the same as education.
I would say it was quite successful indeed companies such as ARM Chips are market dominant in relation to microchips and processors in mobile phones (smartphones or otherwise), tablet computers and for chips in smart TVs. In total over 160 billion chips have been made for various devices based on designs from Arm, which is more than from any other company, and over 60% of all such devices have an ARM chip.
Some of the best selling drugs in the world such as Adalimumab was discovered as a result of a collaboration between BASF Bioresearch and the Corporation and Cambridge Antibody Technology, U.K., itself a collaboration of the government-funded Medical Research Council and three academics.
Sildenafil (compound UK-92,480) was synthesized by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's research facility in England. It was initially studied for use in hypertension (high blood pressure) and angina pectoris (a symptom of ischaemic heart disease). Clinical trials suggested the drug had little effect on angina, but it could induce marked penile erections, so decided to patent it and market it for erectile dysfunction, rather than for angina. They re-branded the drug and sold it under the new brand name Viagra.
In terms of Cancer research, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research organisations, with an outstanding record of achievement. Whilst Cancer Research UK is the world’s largest independent funder of cancer research.
AstraZeneca has just opened a new £1 Billion Headquarters on the Cambridge, The Cambridge Biomedical Campus which is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. Whilst British multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) is headquartered in London and has research facilities in the UK and across the globe.
As for the top research institutions in the world, I think you will find Cambridge is one of them, with 25 science parks and all kinds of companies ranging from start up's to big multinationals, with research covering a vast array of areas.
The Golden Triangle, is a successful mix of London, a world class city with fantastic academic institutions, coupled with with the the research and academic input of renowned universities Oxford and Cambridge.
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Originally Posted by Bidwells
THE BIGGEST BUSINESSES IN SILICON FEN
The region is home to 25 science parks, including the new Cambridge Bio-Campus that, once completed, will be the biggest medical science centre of its kind in the world. Music streaming service and one of Europe's best success stories Spotify has an office in Cambridge, which is used as a customer support base, while Raspberry Pi, the developers of a small computer that teaches people coding, was also founded in this region with help from the University of Cambridge.
Cyber defence company Darktrace is also based in the area, while Microsoft cemented its presence in Cambridge in 1997 when it set up a small research centre, and now has a large office in Silicon Fen. Amazon is using Cambridge as a testing ground for its experimental new drone delivery service while Apple arrived in Cambridge at the end of 2014.
The city is also home to internationally renowned science centres such as the MRX Laboratory for Molecular Biology, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute for genomic research and the Babraham Institute for Immunology.
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Oxford is also a big tech hub, and the Goverments plan is to increase connectivity between the two in order to form, the Oxford Cambridge Arc.
The Arc has a major university sector and forms a knowledge economy, the Universities in the area include; Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, Buckingham University, The Open University (HQ Milton Keynes), Cranfield University, University of Bedfordshire, the University of Cambridge, and the Anglia Ruskin University at Cambridge.
Cranfield University has an airfield and works closely with the defence and tech sectors, whilst a new university is being built in Milton Keybes to be known as MK:U
,and will on digital skills and new technologies, including smart cities, autonomous vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence, business and entrepreneurship, digital and cyber.
In terms of infrastructure, the East West Rail link and the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway are planned, whilst at the same time the UK is now constructing the £100 Billion HS2 High Speed rail, whilst London's Crossrail is due to start taking passengers later this year.
I would say it was quite successful indeed companies such as ARM Chips are market dominant in relation to microchips and processors in mobile phones (smartphones or otherwise), tablet computers and for chips in smart TVs. In total over 160 billion chips have been made for various devices based on designs from Arm, which is more than from any other company, and over 60% of all such devices have an ARM chip.
Some of the best selling drugs in the world such as Adalimumab was discovered as a result of a collaboration between BASF Bioresearch and the Corporation and Cambridge Antibody Technology, U.K., itself a collaboration of the government-funded Medical Research Council and three academics.
Sildenafil (compound UK-92,480) was synthesized by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's research facility in England. It was initially studied for use in hypertension (high blood pressure) and angina pectoris (a symptom of ischaemic heart disease). Clinical trials suggested the drug had little effect on angina, but it could induce marked penile erections, so decided to patent it and market it for erectile dysfunction, rather than for angina. They re-branded the drug and sold it under the new brand name Viagra.
In terms of Cancer research, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research organisations, with an outstanding record of achievement. Whilst Cancer Research UK is the world’s largest independent funder of cancer research.
AstraZeneca has just opened a new £1 Billion Headquarters on the Cambridge, The Cambridge Biomedical Campus which is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. Whilst British multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) is headquartered in London and has research facilities in the UK and across the globe.
As for the top research institutions in the world, I think you will find Cambridge is one of them, with 25 science parks and all kinds of companies ranging from start up's to big multinationals, with research covering a vast array of areas.
The Golden Triangle, is a successful mix of London, a world class city with fantastic academic institutions, coupled with with the the research and academic input of renowned universities Oxford and Cambridge.
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Originally Posted by Brave New World
Oxford is also a big tech hub, and the Goverments plan is to increase connectivity between the two in order to form, the Oxford Cambridge Arc.
The Arc has a major university sector and forms a knowledge economy, the Universities in the area include; Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, Buckingham University, The Open University (HQ Milton Keynes), Cranfield University, University of Bedfordshire, the University of Cambridge, and the Anglia Ruskin University at Cambridge.
Cranfield University has an airfield and works closely with the defence and tech sectors, whilst a new university is being built in Milton Keybes to be known as MK:U
,and will on digital skills and new technologies, including smart cities, autonomous vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence, business and entrepreneurship, digital and cyber.
In terms of infrastructure, the East West Rail link and the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway are planned, whilst at the same time the UK is now constructing the £100 Billion HS2 High Speed rail, whilst London's Crossrail is due to start taking passengers later this year.
This is all true, but this is a comparison topic and since you seem very keen on reframing a topic about comparing cities in regards to education into one about research, all this being true doesn't change the fact that the SF Bay Area is very much ahead of London. Patents, research spending, market caps for tech companies, etc. all point to this and not just by a little bit. You can list all the individual things you want, but I wouldn't want to do the same for the Bay Area, because it would be absurd. Instead, I posted aggregate metrics all of which point to the Bay Area being well above London when it comes to STEMs research.
I don't think STEMs research is quite the same thing as education. The former does have a strong education component to it, but it's obviously not a perfect overlap as not all STEMs research is easily classified as education and not all education relates to STEMs research. On that, the San Francisco Bay Area is certainly ahead of London and just about anywhere save for maybe Beijing. However, I don't think that's the same thing as education where I think London easily outpaces the Bay Area given the sheer quantity of good quality schools and the many fields such as fine and performing arts education as well as the humanities in general that the Bay Area simply is not on nearly the same level overall. It seems like a quixotic pursuit for you, who is rightfully enamored with London as it's a great city, to put so much emphasis on something that London is obviously not the top of when the topic is something where London is.
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Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
This is all true, but this is a comparison topic and since you seem very keen on reframing a topic about comparing cities in regards to education into one about research, all this being true doesn't change the fact that the SF Bay Area is very much ahead of London. Patents, research spending, market caps for tech companies, etc. all point to this and not just by a little bit. You can list all the individual things you want, but I wouldn't want to do the same for the Bay Area, because it would be absurd. Instead, I posted aggregate metrics all of which point to the Bay Area being well above London when it comes to STEMs research.
I don't think STEMs research is quite the same thing as education. The former does have a strong education component to it, but it's obviously not a perfect overlap as not all STEMs research is easily classified as education and not all education relates to STEMs research. On that, the San Francisco Bay Area is certainly ahead of London and just about anywhere save for maybe Beijing. However, I don't think that's the same thing as education where I think London easily outpaces the Bay Area given the sheer quantity of good quality schools and the many fields such as fine and performing arts education as well as the humanities in general that the Bay Area simply is not on nearly the same level overall. It seems like a quixotic pursuit for you, who is rightfully enamored with London as it's a great city, to put so much emphasis on something that London is obviously not the top of when the topic is something where London is.
I think you will find that London and the Golden Triangle are among the best in the world in terms of STEM.
Executives were asked to rank cities, outside of Silicon Valley, that held the most promise for innovation London is now the second best tech hub in the world after Singapore, having leapfrogged Beijing. London has also been named the top city in the world for foreign direct investment from overseas tech companies.
Executives were asked to rank cities, outside of Silicon Valley, that held the most promise for innovation London is now the second best tech hub in the world after Singapore, having leapfrogged Beijing. London has also been named the top city in the world for foreign direct investment from overseas tech companies.
Outside of Silicon Valley, you say? Did you know Silicon Valley is part of the San Francisco Bay Area?
I'm not saying London and the much larger Golden Triangle area doesn't have a strong STEM background, but it's weird for you to emphasize it so much when it's obviously not nearly on the same level as the Bay Area when the topic's asking about something where London does arguably come near the top.
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Outside of Silicon Valley, you say? Did you know Silicon Valley is part of the San Francisco Bay Area?
I'm not saying London and the much larger Golden Triangle area doesn't have a strong STEM background, but it's weird for you to emphasize it so much when it's obviously not nearly on the same level as the Bay Area when the topic's asking about something where London does arguably come near the top.
The UK is on the same level in terms of life sciences, indeed London is full of internationally renowned hospitals and STEM orientated universities such as Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial College Healthcare Trust,), as well as University College London (University College Hospital London) and King's College (Kings College Hospital London). etc.
Oxford and Cambridge are also renowned in terms of STEM, and this also includes science, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Culham with it's synchrotron light source (Diamond Light Source) and Centre for Fusion Energy are highly respected.
The UK is home to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca, two of the largest bio-pharma companies in the world.
Foreign companies with a major presence in the UK pharmaceutical industry include Pfizer, Novartis, Hoffmann–La Roche, Merck. Eisai etc. One in five of the world's biggest-selling prescription drugs were developed in the UK. The UK had the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical Research and development (R&D) expenditure and the largest pharmaceutical R&D expenditure of any European nation.
San Francisco might have more internet type tech companies but in terms of life sciences, physics and array of other important STEM work there is a lot of research beyond California.
There are also a lot of international projects that the UK is part of such as the ITER (originally the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment, which is being constructed in the South of France.
CERN in Switzerland which is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, as well as the European Space Agency, and the European Northern Observatory in Tenerife, European Southern Observatory in northern Chile and the Extremely Large Telescope, which is also in Chile.
In terms of Switzerland, it is another international hub for pharma and science, and is world renowned.
Last edited by Brave New World; 02-07-2021 at 06:32 AM..
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That’s super cool and thanks for the info! I still don’t know if it explains why the University of Manchester is so high on that other list or why Boston University is so low.
Manchester has a long history of innovation, including in areas such as physics and nuclear physics, and has had 25 Nobel laureates (mainly in Chemistry and Physics), and more recent was responsibl for the discovery of Graphene.
Manchester university has close links with an impressive array of hospitals including the Christie Cancer Hospital and the city itself is a growing tech hub.
It also has close links to the The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in nearby Cheshire, the National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield in Cumbria, and the Alderley Park which was purchased by Manchester Science Parks – a partnership between Manchester's academic centres and local councils.
Manchester is also involved in a research collaboration with other close by Universities such as Liverpool, Lancaster, Leeds, Sheffield and York as well as other northern research universities such as Durham and Newcastle, with the partnership known as the N8.
I suspect Boston University is an extremely good institution but is overshadowed by the likes of Harvard and MIT.
The UK is on the same level in terms of life sciences, indeed London is full of internationally renowned hospitals and STEM orientated universities such as Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial College Healthcare Trust,), as well as University College London (University College Hospital London) and King's College (Kings College Hospital London). etc.
Oxford and Cambridge are also renowned in terms of STEM, and this also includes science, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Culham with it's synchrotron light source (Diamond Light Source) and Centre for Fusion Energy are highly respected.
The UK is home to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca, two of the largest bio-pharma companies in the world.
Foreign companies with a major presence in the UK pharmaceutical industry include Pfizer, Novartis, Hoffmann–La Roche, Merck. Eisai etc. One in five of the world's biggest-selling prescription drugs were developed in the UK. The UK had the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical Research and development (R&D) expenditure and the largest pharmaceutical R&D expenditure of any European nation.
San Francisco might have more internet type tech companies but in terms of life sciences, physics and array of other important STEM work there is a lot of research beyond California.
There are also a lot of international projects that the UK is part of such as the ITER (originally the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment, which is being constructed in the South of France.
CERN in Switzerland which is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, as well as the European Space Agency, and the European Northern Observatory in Tenerife, European Southern Observatory in northern Chile and the Extremely Large Telescope, which is also in Chile.
In terms of Switzerland, it is another international hub for pharma and science, and is world renowned.
I agree that if you limited it to just life sciences, it does seem like London is much closer to the Bay Area though I believe if you limit it that way then Boston pulls ahead of London. Life sciences is Boston's particular strong suit with NIH money and a lot of research hospitals. However, where we started this back and forth was your response to my saying research institutions in general puts the Bay Area well ahead of London which is still very much true.
Also, ITER is not a London project in any real material way. Neither the reactor nor the organizational base are in London. None of the directors have been from London or London institutions. F4E doesn't have offices in London or the UK at all and who knows how the UK's role will proceed over the next several years anyhow. I don't see how this relates to London in any particular way as there are certainly several cities that would have a much more reasonable claim towards substantial contribution to the project and organization. I understand you're pretty gungho about the UK having left the EU, but part of that is a diminished role in projects that are heavily EU driven which while an international effort, has been strongly driven by the EU. The UK's role is greatly diminished in that, but it does have JET from previous joint European efforts which after a name change might be able to find some domestic funding.
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I agree that if you limited it to just life sciences, it does seem like London is much closer to the Bay Area though I believe if you limit it that way then Boston pulls ahead of London. Life sciences is Boston's particular strong suit with NIH money and a lot of research hospitals. However, where we started this back and forth was your response to my saying research institutions in general puts the Bay Area well ahead of London which is still very much true.
London has a lot of research financing from the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, numerous medical charities and the bio-pharma industry, as for research hospitals London has numerous large teaching and research hospitals.
The Wellcome Trust which has it's HQ not far from Kings Cross, has a medical research endowment of around $36 Billion USD.
As for research, very few places in the world can match the UK Golden Triangle, and in terms of the Bay area it now has it's own problems with companies choosing to leave because of new laws, taxes and the cost of living.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumber
Also, ITER is not a London project in any real material way. Neither the reactor nor the organizational base are in London. None of the directors have been from London or London institutions. F4E doesn't have offices in London or the UK at all and who knows how the UK's role will proceed over the next several years anyhow. I don't see how this relates to London in any particular way as there are certainly several cities that would have a much more reasonable claim towards substantial contribution to the project and organization. I understand you're pretty gungho about the UK having left the EU, but part of that is a diminished role in projects that are heavily EU driven which while an international effort, has been strongly driven by the EU. The UK's role is greatly diminished in that, but it does have JET from previous joint European efforts which after a name change might be able to find some domestic funding.
I made it patently clear that ITER was an international project and not even a European one, and used examples of such projects to show that there is a lot of research outside of the US, although you don't seem to have taken this on board.
The UK will continue to partner countries in relation to science and technology, and most of these projects are nothing to do with the EU, indeed Switzerland which is a bio-pharma and finance powerhouse thrives outside of the EU, and is even home to CERN. The ESA eve gave Canada special status as a Cooperating State, and has even worked closely with Russia in the past. Whilst the European Telescope projects are an international collaboration and re governed by bodies such as the ESO council and not the EU.
The UK will also now build closer ties with other nations including through the creation of CANZUK and our relationship with Switzerland is now closer than ever, as well as with Japan, especially now that we seek membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Last edited by Brave New World; 02-07-2021 at 11:05 AM..
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