One of the most successful parts of the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ (the development of technology based companies around a world leading university) has been the development of the biosciences. The visible success of university and NHS based scientific endeavour in attracting research funds and inward investment from industry raises a number of questions of more general interest for which Cambridge biomedical science ‘cluster’ might be used as a case study. These include:

1. What is the contribution of Cambridge biomedical science to the local economy? What are the factors that have led to this investment being in Cambridge rather than elsewhere in the United Kingdom and elsewhere?

2. What are the costs and benefits of the recent growth in biomedical sciences on the wider economy within Cambridgeshire? What factors limit future development and the sustainability of current developments? To what extent do the benefits and disbenefits impact on different population groups?

3. What is the contribution of Cambridge biomedical science to the national economy and what methods are available with which to assess this?

4. What actions are required by those involved across industry, academia and government to maximise the local and national economic contribution that biomedical sciences can make?

This project in association with Cambridge Economic Associates and Cambridge Econometrics, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, seeks to shed light on these issues to help identify the return on investment in large bioscience clusters.