First two high-tech companies sign up to move to WCFI
December 10, 2018
Exciting news! We’ve just signed up the first two local high-tech businesses to rent space at our new Wood Centre for Innovation (WCFI) when it opens in April 2019.
The two companies are Triteq, a medical product design and development company that is also a sponsor of our annual Enterprise Awards, and Ultromics, a business that uses AI to build diagnostic aids for cardiovascular diseases.
The WCFI, which is being built in Headington, is owned by the Trust and named after our patrons, Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood. It will be managed by Oxford Innovation (OI) who manage 22 other innovation centres in the UK, including our Oxford Centre for Innovation in the city centre. The two-centre management plan will enable a sharing of resources and provide a venue for city centre meetings.
On talking about the move, Angela Hobbs, MD of Triteq, said: “We felt the Wood Centre for Innovation was the ideal place for us to relocate to as the woodland location, combined with close proximity to Oxford city centre and London, meant we had the best of both worlds. Working at WCFI also means we’ll become part of a community of businesses working within the science and technology sectors.”
Ross Upton, co-founder and CEO of Ultromics, said: “The Wood Centre for Innovation is the ideal building for us as we wanted to be located among other companies working in the science and technology sectors as well as being located a stone’s throw from the John Radcliffe Hospital and Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility, where much of our research takes place.”
It seems that WCFI’s beautiful woodland site and its location close the city’s health and data sciences quarter will be a big pull site. Currently under construction, the centre will provide purpose-built space and support for growing companies, from 4 to 22, that work in science and technology. Not only that, it will provide meeting rooms for up to 20 people, a 120-seater auditorium, video and conferencing facilities, an on-site café and an outdoor eating area. Both the WCFI and OCFI buildings will be managed by OI’s new Centre Director Mike Foster, who started in early December.
We hope that WCFI will become a hub of cutting-edge science and tech businesses and will be a real boost to the city’s credentials as a leader in science and technology.
