British Business Bank joins our latest Gold Partner programme

We’ve welcomed the British Business Bank to our prestigious Gold Partner programme. The British Business Bank, an economic development bank owned by the Department for Business and Trade but operationally independent, will join ten other leading organisations in the campus’s Gold Partner network. Together, they provide world-class business support, expertise, and specialist services to the campus community.

Gold Partners are a select group of organisations that work directly with the over 160 start-ups, scale-ups, and global companies based on Campus. Together, they provide a comprehensive range of specialist services vital to knowledge-intensive industries – from intellectual property, scientific research, and AI and digital solutions to technology commercialisation, laboratory and engineering infrastructure, insurance, finance, taxation, legal, and marketing expertise.

The support of the Gold Partners and companies within the wider Sci-Tech Daresbury ecosystem helps increase the probability of success and rate of acceleration for the science, technology and engineering companies at Sci-Tech Daresbury. According to data captured through campus surveys, on average, businesses at Sci-Tech Daresbury achieved an impressive sales growth rate of over 25% per year and failure rate on campus of only 7% – a testament to the strength of the ecosystem and partner network.

Following the success of the 2024/2025 Gold Partners programme, Asset Lifecycle Solutions, Bouygues Energies & Services (BYES), David Antrobus Marketing, Grant Thornton, IBM, Konsileo, Marks and Clerk, RTC North, Slater Heelis and University of Liverpool are all continuing their legacy with Sci-Tech Daresbury.

John Leake, our Business Growth Director says: “Welcoming the British Business Bank as a Gold Partner marks another step forward in strengthening the support network for our campus companies. Its track record in unlocking growth finance and backing ambitious entrepreneurs will help our businesses move faster, think bigger, and compete with confidence in global markets. They perfectly complement the incredible breadth and depth of expertise that our ten other Gold Partners bring to help reduce risks and accelerate growth for the businesses on the campus.”

Delyth Edwards, Senior Manager for the North West at the British Business Bank: “Access to the right finance at the right time can be transformational for innovative companies. By joining the Gold Partner programme at Sci-Tech Daresbury, we can work more closely with the pioneering businesses on campus – helping them get access to the right advice and guidance on their funding needs, and securing this at the right time  to scale, create high-value jobs, and compete on the global stage.“

As a key North of England location where science, technology and engineering companies can thrive, Sci-Tech Daresbury’s campus partnerships have a circa 15-year track record of supporting a wide range of innovation-based businesses. The partners help with essential parts of the process, including securing funding, protecting intellectual property, and offering advice on legal, financial, and business matters.

British Business Bank is the latest expert organisation to join this leading cohort of valued and trusted partners. Other Gold Partners include:

Asset Lifecycle Solutions is one of the UK’s most highly accredited IT asset disposal specialists, holding the ADISA STANDARD 8.0 DIAL 3 certification. It provides sustainable and secure IT lifecycle management services across both the public and private sectors. Asset Lifecycle Solutions’ expertise spans the responsible recycling of equipment to the secure disposal of data, ensuring compliance and peace of mind for its clients. Committed to creating social value, the company actively gives back refurbished IT equipment to the community through various initiatives, supporting education, local development, and environmental sustainability.

Bouygues Energies & Services (BYES) specialises in designing and building process facilities and cleanrooms for the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors. With more than 50 years’ experience, we work with clients ranging from SMEs to global pharmaceutical companies. Our projects cover the full spectrum—from laboratories and pilot plants to scale-up facilities and large-scale manufacturing. We deliver safe, efficient, and sustainable solutions that meet the highest regulatory standards, supporting organisations at every stage of their growth and production journey.

David Antrobus Marketing: Strategic Growth Partners – With nearly three decades of experience, this dedicated team makes marketing accountable, profitable, and transformative. Their expertise spans global institutions and growing SMEs. They become an extension of client teams, listening first and creating strategies uniquely tailored to each business. Services include strategic marketing consultancy, branding & design, website development, search engine optimisation, advertising & campaigns, and exhibition & event marketing.

Grant Thornton is one of the world’s leading organisations of independent assurance, tax and advisory firms. It combines global scale with local insight and understanding to build relationships and deliver the services companies need to realise their ambitions. From its local offices in Manchester and Liverpool it offers a full suite of audit, tax and advisory services and in particular, support companies on campus with R&D tax credits, outsourcing financial book-keeping, accounts preparation, corporate and personal tax compliance.

IBM Research is at the forefront of computing, creating the next advances in technology across quantum computing, enterprise AI foundation models and hardware, and semiconductor research. The Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI) – a joint programme resulting from a five-year collaboration between STFC and IBM – is grounded in concrete research questions and data from ongoing R&D work, helping to develop innovative solutions to industry challenges.

Konsileo is an award-winning next-generation, forward-thinking tech insurance broker.

Its specialist brokers focus on the company’s customers’ requirements and will talk them through their cover options. It specialises in areas of Technology & Innovation, Healthcare & life Sciences, Start-ups & Spinouts using global insurer partners such as such as Hiscox, CFC, AXA, XL Catlin, Chubb, CNA Hardy and Lloyds. Examples of covers available are: Professional Indemnity, Liabilities, Cyber, Business interruption including R&D Expenditure, Directors & Officers, Clinical Trials, Worldwide business travel and Intellectual Property. Its clients range from university spin outs to global technology and life science businesses with high USA and worldwide exposure.

Marks & Clerk, intellectual property (IP) experts, has a full IP service offering, giving clear, practical and commercially focused advice on all IP matters (patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, litigation, due diligence, etc.), helping businesses to identify, protect, enforce, defend and maximise the value of their innovations and brands in the UK and overseas, via its international network of offices.

RTC North is one of the UK’s leading providers of business support and innovation services, helping organisations to grow, innovate, and compete on a global scale. Established in 1989, RTC specialises in supporting technology-based businesses, developing new products, and opening routes to new markets, having worked directly with over 30,000 SMEs across the North of England.

Slater Heelis is a full-service law firm with a focus on commercial offerings, providing businesses operating in the Innovation, Technology and Manufacturing sectors with a Partner led specialist legal support. Its lawyers are able to advise on corporate structures, governance, investment and funding rounds, NDA’s, commercial contracts, intellectual property rights management and licensing, employment law, consultancy and sub-contracting and dispute resolution.

The University of Liverpool is one of the UK’s leading research-intensive higher education institutions with an annual turnover of £708.3 million, including an annual research income of £163.1 million. The University is a member of the prestigious Russell Group of the UK’s leading research universities and the N8 Research Partnership and is consistently ranked in the top 200 universities worldwide.