Hello there, I'm Howard Bentham, and this is OxTalks, the podcast powered by OxLEP, the local enterprise partnership for Oxfordshire and sponsored by leading national law firm Mills & Reeve. If you've only just discovered these podcasts, OxTalks aims to discuss current issues in business and explore areas of interest in conversation with some genuinely remarkable and inspirational leaders.
Each of my guests is keen to acknowledge the valuable support that OxLEP can provide and how it could be critical in helping your company or organisation thrive. As you'd expect, our focus is on Oxfordshire's businesses in these podcasts, but naturally, you may well be enjoying OxTalks wherever you are. Many of the issues we experience here will be very similar to those to the ones that you are potentially facing. Why not join in the conversation and share any thoughts and feedback.
Our social media is a great way to get in touch. We are @OxfordshireLEP on X and Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership on LinkedIn. You're welcome to raise a question for future discussions or leave your thoughts on the topics we discuss. Please use the email address on the podcast description and we look forward to hearing from you. In this edition, we'll explore how to find the right business support for startups and spin outs.
In previous OxTalks episodes, we've separately looked at investments and the innovation ecosystem in Oxfordshire for entrepreneur led fledgling companies. Do check out the editions featuring Artem Korolev, the founder and CEO of Mission Street, Chas Bountra, Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford, and Fiona Reid, Associate Professor of Bioscience Entrepreneurship at UCL.
This edition, however, is aiming to focus specifically on the help that is at hand for startups and social ventures. What is out there, where to look and who to speak with about it and why creating a network is crucial to success. The results are clear, Oxford University Innovation's impact report from last year detailed the birth of 20 new companies and spin outs. These generated £34 million in income, attracting nearly three quarters of a billion pounds worth of investment.
But how does a business make the leap from Brilliant idea to fully function in company. What hurdles are in the way and who's there to champion and nurture entrepreneurs to give them every chance of succeeding? I'm delighted to welcome to OxTalks, the head of marketing, communications and PR at Oxford University Innovation, Andrea Stewart. Andrea, great to talk to you, thank you so much for being our guest on OxTalks.
Before we get into the here and now, it's always nice to learn a little bit about our guests. If variety is the spice of life, yours is a particularly well seasoned one. Give us the whistle stop tour. This is incredible, time working in India, France and Switzerland, some amazing roles in humanitarian relief and you also had a job cleaning up space debris in the Earth's orbit. Tell us more. Yeah, thanks for having me today.
Yeah, my career has been entirely in marketing communications and advocacy work. So working with governments in the UK and internationally and I've worked across a number of sectors, including non-governmental organisations, industry and many years now working at the university. My most recent role worked for a fast growth company on Harwell campus, a space company called Astroscale and yes, we were attempting to clean up space junk with some very exciting space missions.
Brilliant, and you're now at Oxford University Innovation. Again, for everyone listening, just context that, what they do and where your incredible experience and skill set fits in.
Yeah, so Oxford University Innovation is known as a Technology Transfer Office and we are part of the university and our responsibilities include commercialising research from the university and that can come in multiple forms from creating licenses, so think of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID 19 vaccine as a good example.
The vaccine technology and the vaccine expertise came out of Oxford and a commercial partnership was created with AstraZeneca and other industry partners to manufacture and disseminate the vaccine. So in addition to licensing deals, we also create companies and those companies come in multiple forms. They can be spin outs where the university has intellectual property in the ideas that are being born into new companies.
Startups, which often come out of students and or researchers and staff at the university, where the IP is independent of the university's research and then social ventures where it's a company but the interest and the driving force behind the company is more driven towards social and societal impact. And what is Oxford University Innovation's role within the wider innovation ecosystem?
You talked about your time at Harwell Campus, it's a great word, ecosystem, because that's exactly what it is, tell us how you fit in that particular jigsaw. Yeah, OUI has a large part to play in the local ecosystem and the regional ecosystem. In particular, it's through the companies that we create. We create somewhere between 10 and 20 companies a year and they're right across the spectrum of sectors and technologies and we can talk a little bit about that later.
I think it's part of the university's remit to have impact in the region and to contribute to the regional economy, to contribute to societal gains and development in the region and to be part of the ecosystem through the research commercialisation work that we do.. If you take the examples of some of our licensing agreement, that technology is applied locally in the community and also nationally and internationally and benefits the lives of people and the planet that we live on.
So we see ourselves as an important contributor to the local ecosystem and we can only deliver it in partnership. What are your key priorities for 2024? We mentioned in the introduction, £34 million generated in income, so it's going in the right direction, isn't it? Are there plans to grow what you're doing? Always, yes. The growth that we deliver and the returns that we deliver for the university are plowed back into developing more innovation activities.
So the university takes the funds and the returns that Oxford University Innovation creates and puts that into things like seed funds that help to start these new companies with the funding that they need to get going.
We provide a tremendous amount of support to our academic founders for the work that they do and then their onward journey into the community, be that in Oxford and in other parts of the country, is very important to OUI that we see that success from the birth of the company, which starts with Oxford University Innovation through to their growth and their success over time. Let's mention, you brought up money, let's talk investment briefly.
I know in the introduction we said we covered this off in a couple of previous OxTalks, but important to get your thoughts on how Oxford University Innovation helps entrepreneurs, young and older, to launch their new ideas and provide investment. Tell us how this works and what's on offer. It's not quite a bottomless pit, but it's a fairly big pit, isn't it?
Yeah, the important thing is funding and support for our academic founders and for those innovators that are keen to get to market and the funding support is critical to that. So we have a number of seed and early stage funding opportunities that reinvestment of the wealth creation from our companies and licensed deals.
We have the University Challenge Seed Fund for example, that takes some of those early phase ideas that are yet to be taken to market and provides them with that funding to then create a license, which that might then become a company and sometimes we do license then company or we do both at the same time. We also have a consultancy offering, which is about leveraging the expertise within the university and plowing that into the companies that we create and into the wider industry as well.
We have an equity management fund as well, it's called the SEM fund, which reinvests that wealth into the companies and helps them to grow through different stages of investment and then we work with an investment firm called Park Walk as well, who manage a fund, the University of Oxford Innovation Fund and they manage a fund that invests external investors investing in our companies, and they consolidate.
You've read my mind because I was thinking this can't surely all come from money that's reinvested from what you're generating, you must have some input from outside. That's right, so in addition to Park Walk and the University of Oxford Innovation Fund that they manage to invest in our companies.
We have Oxford Science Enterprises as well, which is an independent fund that invests in Oxford's companies and doesn't invest in all the companies that are created and of course, they're not the only investor and they can't survive just on a single fund investment. So we, OSE work with a number of other investors at each stage of the investment rounds to ensure that they're working in consortium to build those companies and they're not always the lead investor for these companies as well.
Sometimes other venture capital firms, for example, will be the lead investment and OSE and or our own funds will be secondary investors. Are there any key sectors that investors are currently looking to prioritise? What's hot at the moment? Yeah, we're incredibly lucky at Oxford because we really cover a multiple of sectors. fascinating, isn't it? When you actually just stop and look what goes on, it's mind blowing. Phenomenal.
I mean, some of the known strengths that we have within the university are in areas like therapeutics, for example, in vaccine development.
We have huge strength in digital health and health technologies as well and in taking it outside of the medical sciences sphere, we have incredible strengths in AI, in quantum, in new computing and then we take it into those sectors that really have societal impact, whether that's tackling planetary challenges like climate change, energy crisis, we really have tremendous strengths in physical engineering sciences and technology as well.
So it's really hard to pinpoint one single sector that Oxford, it's greatest strength, We really cover a number of sectors, but those are probably the ones where we see the new company creation, we see the licenses evolving very quickly and successfully. What about the challenges that you're facing bringing in that investment? Times are tough, clearly at the moment and competition for investment is strong.
You're right, it's a tough climate for investment, and we see our companies working incredibly hard to find that investment to grow and to be able to stay in the UK. So some of the activities that we support is helping our companies get exposure to different types of investors, be that in the UK investment firms, European and for example, American, US investment firms, and how do we do that?
It's important to give them the introductions to help them to scope those investment markets and to provide the support they need to go out to those investors. For example, in January of this year, for the first time, our head of investments, Adam Workman and myself organised an event in San Francisco at the JP Morgan conference, and we invited over 80 US investors from east to west coast to come and meet more than 15 of our companies, in...
Taking it from the mouths of Silicon Valley then, under their noses. Well, the only way to meet and connect with them is to be there in situ. It's not just about them coming over to Oxford as well. So we create those opportunities, but we also, for example, last summer, brought over a very large group of US investors to focus on our life sciences portfolio.
We were able to take them to visit some of our existing companies, be that VaxiTech on Harwell campus, and to meet with those companies, see those labs and see the work we do in practice. So it's important to go in both directions. Do you support businesses of any shape and size? I mean, we've got that sort of picture in our head of the person coming out of university with this brilliant idea, the light bulb is well and truly on.
I guess that might not just be the one man, or woman band, it's collaborations and even older people involved too. Tell us some of the stories.
There's definitely no age limit on innovation coming out of the University of Oxford and we see young students in their first, second year at university through to close to retirement or retiring professors who have still got the ambition and the drive to develop licensing technology, to consult with industry to create new companies and we support them right across that spectrum, and not only is age not a barrier, but also diversity, you know, we see some of our most
exciting companies born out of students and staff from all forms of nationality, cultural background, and gender as well. So we really see innovation has no barriers from our perspective and we see those opportunities just coming thick and fast. In terms of who do we support? So our support at OUI is focused on ideas coming out of the University of Oxford.
But of course, those ideas never exist in isolation and the co-founders and inventors that we work with are very often working with experts in other universities, they're working with industry partners to help develop their ideas and of course within the local ecosystem, the creation of those partnerships requires new team members and to build those teams to build the companies.
So although we focus on University of Oxford staff, students, researchers, by no means do we stop there, you know, the growth happens because we work with partners in the UK and abroad. I'm loving your passion, you clearly love your job and how do you get the right support to the right spin out, to the right startup? Because firstly it's hard to, I think, as an innovator, to know where to turn.
But equally, you've got to, I guess, forensically look at an organisation and go, you need that particular type of help. How do you get that right? Yeah, it's all about team. It's about the team that supports the founders to grow and develop, and it's about the team that you help them to form, to grow their companies and we work with our partners to help build those teams and identify the teams.
So that's primarily the investors, that's their collaborators within the university and outside the university, so the academic scientific technology expertise, and it's about the helping them to identify how they're going to grow, what the market need is, where they're going to grow, and trying where possible to keep them in Oxfordshire. That's interesting. The Oxford Innovation Society is a project you're leading on, you're very passionate about.
How does that fit into the whole idea of what you're doing Yeah, so the Oxford Innovation Society is a network that's been around for around 30 years, but the formula if you like, to deliver that network has been somewhat similar over those three decades, involving two or three dinners a year, bringing together a cross section of stakeholders and providing some opportunities to connect external partners with the university innovation
ecosystem and those founders within the university with external partners. But what we've really looked to do this year is to relaunch that program with a more diverse offering for the network. So that includes not just those dinners that I mentioned have been going on for many decades, but also to bring in workshops, practical, smaller networking opportunities that are more sectorally focused and that are more stakeholder focused.
So we have planned for this year a number of investor focused events. We have planned events to support those spin outs in that early phase of growth and development, working with external expertise and partners to deliver those events, be that through their need for financial support, for legal support, for team and people support, really looking to help them with our partners in the region to grow and thrive.
It's interesting about this relationship, you're effectively building relationships all across the board here, aren't you? What about the relationships with Oxford University Innovation, with regional organisations, Advanced Oxford, the Science Parks you've touched on and of course OxLEP. Tell us how you build and nurture those. Yeah, we shouldn't be ever working in isolation. In order to deliver and support this ecosystem, we have to be working with partners in the region.
There are some fantastic initiatives that already exist and that have been helping us to build the ecosystem, whether that's OxLEP, whether that's Advanced Oxford, the numerous growing and burgeoning science parks that we see from North, South, East to West. It's an extremely exciting time. I know Mission Street were on recently, but we can see that growth happening at the Oxford Science Park, at Harwell, Begbrooke, it really is a burgeoning time for the region.
So we need to work with the strengths of each of those networks and where their USP is, their unique selling point and their skillset and to complement each other so we don't have duplication in the ecosystem, be that government relations, be that business support, be that providing the premises and the expertise that's needed to help our companies and our founders to survive.
And just to be clear, Oxford University Innovation, you have to have a link with Oxford University, nobody can just come and knock your door and say, Oh, I've got a great idea. Yeah, no, our focus is on building ideas that come out of the university in Oxford, but our impact is around creating economic societal impact for the region as a whole and towards the country as a whole. That seems a perfect time to bring OxLEP's Director of Business Development, Richard Byard into the conversation.
Richard, great to see you. Do you want to pick up on what Andrea's saying there? Because it's amazing, quite frankly, what Oxford University Innovation are doing, and OxLEP are doing this on a, it's just the wider scale, isn't it, really? And the partnering is just so important. Absolutely, yeah, the passion, the drive that Andrea's shown is very clearly evident, and I think for me, that just summarises the Oxfordshire ecosystem.
There is a huge amount of talent, there's a huge amount of ambition, there's a huge amount of drive, and it's dispersed across the whole of Oxfordshire in multiple organisations, whether that be OUI, whether it be OSC, whether it be OxLEP, whether it be a multitude of other organisations and the challenge we've got is unearthing it and finding it and bringing it together, and that's what Andrea and the team do, it's what we do and effectively, be that connective
tissue across the multiple stakeholders within Oxfordshire because we've got that shared ambition, we've got that shared drive, and collectively we do some great stuff and Andrea's already given us some wonderful examples. One that sticks with me from an OxLEP perspective is our, in the early days of our innovation support for business programme which the University were a key partner of, we supported an early stage spin out who brought some new, innovative approaches to Ebola vaccine.
Brilliant! And, you know, that company's taken off significantly and do some great work and it is about that economic and societal ambition and the key benefits that we can make together, collectively and it is that collective network where we've got the strength, where Oxfordshire has come a huge way over the past decade or so, supported by people like Andrea, organisations like OUI and the LEP as well, and it's something we really must build on and drive forward.
The interesting point I had in my head there when you were talking, Richard, was that your job is to try and unearth these companies, I was suddenly just thinking about the entrepreneur that has this amazing idea who's going, where's the help? Where can I find the help? And if you like, it's sort of the two sides of the coin here, isn't it really? And however brilliant your ideas and growth plans are on paper, you still need that support, so knowing where to look is half the battle.
Absolutely, and we have a responsibility within the broader ecosystem to make our services as accessible as possible, to ensure that everyone that can access them is aware of them and also that we have that sort of collective open door.
There's no wrong entry point and it could be, and you described, Howard, in one of your earlier questions, that the services that Andrea provides are not for everyone, but ultimately they and the team will know somebody, an organisation that can help them and that's very much what we do at the LEP in terms of really trying to ensure that we have that broad overview of what the business support ecosystem looks like, how it can support the business moving forward.
We won't have all the answers in the same way that Andrea doesn't have all the answers, but we will know, more often than not, who will have the answers and who can provide that help and support?
And again, it's coming back to that connective tissue and that network of networks and the ability to know a little about a lot and just have that key relationship with key stakeholders and key organisations and the ability to disperse that knowledge and expertise across Oxfordshire and we're good at it.
Collectively, we are really good at it and the testament to that, you see the significant growth in patent applications across Oxfordshire over the past decade, more than double of Manchester, which often gets a lot of the news coverage in terms of patent applications. A way to go still, but you know, that's a key area for us that we can drive forward. Andrea, how does a partnership with OxLEP strengthen your offer and opportunities for startups and social ventures and the like?
I think if we have a healthy innovation ecosystem within the region, everybody benefits because if companies, whether they're created or spun out of the university or whether they're created within the local community, if they're thriving, then more talent is attracted into the region, our premises and the science parks that we've mentioned are filled and the space is being utilised, more jobs are created.
So our partnership is critical because we want to see our companies supported after they've been launched out of Oxford University Innovation and to receive that support wherever they're based in the region. So OxLEP is really critical in helping our companies to continue to grow and thrive and critically to stay in the region.
There's a tendency as companies get to a certain size, they look for investment outside of the UK ecosystem, and there's always a risk that companies will move overseas or diversify into other markets at the expense of being able to stay, grow and thrive in Oxfordshire and we really want to retain that talent and that expertise to feed back into the new opportunities that there are to build licenses and companies in the region. Do you want to pick up on that, Richard? Yeah, absolutely, very key.
I think the more we can collectively do to ensure that we retain those early stage and mid size companies, the better. Historically, perhaps a decade or slightly less, there was a narrative, a very accurate narrative, that we didn't have the next stage of space available.
What we're seeing now is driven by university investment, driven by private investment, is a huge response to that challenge and Mission Street picked up on it in earlier podcast around ensuring we have the right space available for those mid sized companies that have gone through the early stage incubation, they've got their track record, they've got credible business plan, and they need the next space and you've got investment just opposite where we are here on the
Science Park, you've got investment in Oxford North, significant investment across the county, including Bicester Motion, the market is responding, and that is absolutely key for us in order to retain that talent, retain those businesses, and retain that wealth and ensure that wealth is dispersed around Oxfordshire communities as best as we can. How do you go about creating these links with like minded people and organisations? The actual doing it, what goes on behind the scenes?
The doing it, the day to day activity, stakeholder management, relationship management, it's getting out there, it's ensuring that we have the right relationships with the key stakeholders at all times and of course, that's a challenge in itself, because that's individual personal relationships, and people move and often those relationships have to be rebuilt with the organisations.
But you can't do any of this without trust and you've got to have those personal relationships, and you've got to have that trust, and understand and recognise that, and have the confidence that when you're effectively handing a client over to another organisation or signposting that they will deliver, because you're putting your name to it, you're putting your organisational name and reputation to it.
So, we have got that really strong network, you've got, Andrea mentioned some of them, but the Advanced Oxford Network. which is really, strong, you've got the cluster groups in and around Harwell, you've got the fusion cluster group based around Culham, for example, you've got, in the visitor economy, Experience Oxfordshire doing great work as the, as the local visitor economy partnership and drawing that sector together.
We are not short on networks, and often that is a confusion, it's a strength, but equally that's a confusion as well, and that's something that we're very keen to work through and to help ensure that businesses access the right support available to them at all times.
Andrea, are the challenges that you've got to overcome to help the links grow, just hearing Richard say the word trust there, I mean, I just imagine people can get a little bit over focused sometimes, and have that silo mentality, I'm working on this, I don't need anyone else's help, and obviously you've got to trust somebody to let them into your idea. How do you go about making that, well, building that trust?
Yeah, I think for us it comes back to that idea of team that no founder or co-founding team can do it alone, that they need the expertise and they need it rapidly. Often they're working with very competitive market forces and time is of the essence to ensure that technology leads and they're driving from the front of the market. I think it's signposting, as Richard mentioned, you know, knowing where to give them the advice and the introductions.
Our role is not to tell our companies what to do, it's very much to offer them the opportunities and the connections. So, providing those particular fora, those physical, you know, post COVID meeting opportunities face to face is really important. Bringing in people, not just regionally, but internationally, who can provide that expertise and that support. Building off those, that have been there and done it as well.
So that mentorship piece, for example, we bring in mentors into our incubator program, which is the startup scheme where we grow those early ideas and that mentorship and coaching is critical. So knowing and understanding and supporting teams, not to do it alone. Andrea and Richard, thank you both for the moment. We'll chat again shortly.
Good to have you along for OxTalks, the podcast powered by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and sponsored by leading national law firm Mills & Reeve. If you want to get in touch with the team at OxLEP to comment on what you've been hearing, find us on social media. We're on X @OxfordshireLEP or via LinkedIn, search for Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
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If you're looking for the latest advice and support, complete our Business Support Tool today and get set to receive a bespoke Action Plan for your organisation. Head to oxlepbusiness. co. uk to find out more. Are you looking for high quality, tailored legal advice in Oxfordshire? At Mills & Reeve, we're passionate about supporting the community and strive to keep local work, local, through our expertise, contacts and international network from our Oxford office.
Our experience is vast, spanning areas such as commercial, corporate law, finance, ESG, employment, family, private client and planning. We can achieve more, together. To find out how we can help you, get in touch at www.mills-reeve. com Let's chat more to Andrea Stewart from Oxford University Innovation and Richard Byard from OxLEP.
Richard, I want to pick up with you first, if I may, about some of the changes that are happening to the Local Enterprise Partnerships more widely across England, but also crucially how OxLEP specifically is going to look in the future. Yeah, absolutely.
So, over a year ago, the Chancellor announced in the Budget 2023 that he was minded to withdraw funding for LEPs moving forward and to transfer responsibilities to democratically elected institutions, which is code for upper tier or for local authorities.
So over that intervening period, we've been working very closely with our county council colleagues, to ensure that the transfer of duties or functions per government guidance happens in a pragmatic and sensible way, but that it crucially doesn't erode the support available for businesses and for residents moving forward and we've landed in a really good positive place whereby from April the 1st, we'll be continuing to work across the Oxfordshire economic development
ecosystem, we will continue to offer the range of services that we have done for many years and we will be continuing to support businesses, innovators and the ecosystem we spoke about earlier on. And what does change?
And I don't want to bore anyone with the back of house governance, but effectively, if you think about it, that the County Council will take over OxLEP Limited, but the day to day interactions with businesses, with investors and with our skills support, hopefully will see very little change. And it's worth appreciating that not all LEPs are made the same, are they? Some are actually just disappearing from the landscape.
But this is just to stress that OxLEP is going to continue its great work in the future. Absolutely, yeah. Across the 38 LEP that were in existence, some are being subsumed within Combined Authorities, some are being subsumed within Unitary Authorities, different structures to suit local need.
But we're very keen to ensure that the support that OxLEP has provided over the past decade continues, and that we're able to ensure that the Businesses, residents, communities can access our skills offer, our investment offer, our business support offer and Oxfordshire continues to thrive. But, as you said, there are other LEPs that are disappearing from the landscape and local solutions are being found that meet local priorities.
And as far as businesses that use your services, they'll not notice anything different. They will not notice anything different. Ultimately, the day to day operations will continue, we'll have a full range of access to services and, in fact, some new services to help and support that socio economic benefit for Oxfordshire. Obviously a year ago when the Chancellor spoke, a sharp intake of breath at OxLEP, but hearing that things are going to be carrying on, Andrea, good news locally.
Fantastic news. I think it's critical that Oxlef is continuing and that the services that they provide to the business community and to residents continues in particular around the skills based training, signposting. If we have a thriving and informed innovation ecosystem, we're able to grow our companies, we're able to grow our talent base and we're able to fill all the fantastic new sites and premises that are burgeoning across the region.
Share some stories of startups, spin outs that have just captured your imagination, especially with the background you have, I can imagine you look at these things and go, wow, that really has grabbed my attention. Yeah, there are so many incredible examples of the companies that have been created, but also the licensing technology.
One of the ones that stood for me, I worked for many years with malaria treatment teams at the university in medical sciences and I sat next to the office of a malaria vaccine team up at the university Old Road campus and in the last year, Oxford's malaria vaccine has received WHO pre approval for distribution. and They started with some trials in countries in Africa, and now that will be rolled out. Six hundred thousand people die a year from malaria, most of those are children under five.
Having a vaccine, as the R21/Matrix-M vaccine for me was one of the most exciting moments in the last year and OUI, Oxford University Innovation supported the licensing negotiations with the Serum Institute and with other industrial partners to distribute that vaccine internationally and there are other vaccines in the pipeline which are phenomenally exciting, tackling other extremely debilitating and life threatening diseases.
So really working and seeing that those technologies, that research and that science go from the lab towards patients in need, that's one of the most exciting things working in this space.
Fantastic. Richard, I know you want to tell us about some of the new things that are on offer, because evolution of OxLEP is happening obviously with the back of house, you talked about it, but there's some really exciting things happening, skills bootcamps, the West Oxfordshire Business Support Program, come on, share some news with us because you're like a coiled spring!. Absolutely, yeah, indeed.
So we have just gone live with a business support programme on behalf of West Oxfordshire District Council, and that's a decent sized pot of grant support and business support for businesses within that district and we hope that we'll be able to develop that programme further, including other districts. Skills Bootcamp's really exciting.
We've spoken about talent, we've spoken about some of the challenges in terms of talent retention and ensuring that businesses have the right and innovators have the right talent in order to drive forward. Skills Bootcamps are a short, sharp training courses that are available at no cost to residents and businesses in order to help meet identified local skills, needs, and challenges.
So, for example, we've got boot camps launching in life sciences, in particular sectors of life sciences, recognising the huge growth. We've got boot camps in things like e bike maintenance, we've got skills boot camps in construction, we've got skills boot camps in visitor economy. So, really keen and really positive news there.
They go live as of next week and yeah, we certainly hope that's the start of an ongoing program supported by DFE, fully funded by DFE, that can really help, again, as part of the broader ecosystem, address some of the skills challenges Oxfordshire has and really respond to the needs of business. I think in terms of evolution and of course, as I said, the County Council is effectively taking over OxLEP Ltd. We'll be very keen to work with them.
There are additional responsibilities that the County Councils and upper tier authorities across the country are taking on.
Things like Work Well programs, so employment support activities, particularly for those who are furthest from the labour market and we're really keen to help and support that process and to ensure that, again, we can bring those who are furthest from the labour market closer to economic activity, can provide economic opportunity for them and also to perhaps have that broader conversation, we don't do this in isolation, because often the conversation
might start off around skills, but equally it could end up with a support for a new investor, it could end up with support for business, and it's that connective tissue, it's that infrastructure that we collectively provide that provides that team Oxfordshire approach that Andrea described.
So we've got new programs, we've got existing programs, so our growth hub going from strength to strength, incredible growth in our women's network, we've got seeing tremendous take up there of a dedicated Women's business support networking group sold out every time fantastic really phenomenal.
We've got our continued support around peer network, so business owners who perhaps have who are facing particular challenges, meeting regularly through a structured program in a safe space and just comparing notes and challenges with other business owners and just understanding how other businesses have tackled similar issues and challenges. We've got our continuing work to support foreign direct investors keyed in order to fill some of the new investors that are coming forward.
One I'm particularly proud of is our Apprenticeship Levy Retention Program. So, circa 280 or so Apprenticeship Levy paying businesses in Oxfordshire, very few of them actually use it fully. What we've been able to do is put a team together, work with those levy paying businesses to retain levy generated in Oxfordshire for Oxfordshire. We've just gone through two and a half million pounds worth of levy retained. So we smashed every target along the way.
That levy is helping support 161 new apprenticeship placements and actually behind those numbers that's 161 friendship placements, 45 percent in health and social care, which we all know is a key sector for us and a key sector of labour shortage and behind every one of those is a story, an individual being helped and supported to move closer to economic activity.
If there are any levy paying businesses that want to come and talk to us, then please do because that's a really good way to evidence local support for local need. Andrea that's an incredible menu of offer that OxLEP are talking about there. What kind of support do new businesses need most at this point in time that you're finding?
Yeah, I think there are many challenges and opportunities for the companies in these early phase growth, investment is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges and for a company to grow and thrive, finding the right investors, having those introductions and forming those partnerships with other investors, there's never one investor for a company to grow and thrive. I think also access to talent is critical.
Talent for our companies certainly doesn't just come from within the university, it comes from other companies within the region and it's also brought and attracted into the region.
So showcasing our best technologies, our best companies so that people know that Oxfordshire has these opportunities for career development and for joining exciting young companies is really key and how we as a region grow our strengths, we talked about clusters briefly earlier, but those clusters in campuses like Harwell, for example, marry the types of licensing technologies and companies that we're creating, whether that's Life Sciences Cluster,
the Space Cluster, we have multiple AI and quantum growing and burgeoning. So I think finding those strengths in those sectors and showcasing our potential best examples of that will continue to help our ecosystem to attract new investment, to attract new talent, and to attract other companies to come and grow and develop here. Moderna breaking ground in Harwell was an excellent example of that.
We want other multinational companies and large companies to come to the region so that our smaller companies can then grow and thrive alongside them. Richard, you're nodding. Yeah, Moderna's a really good case in point. Three hundred plus jobs, many in the manufacturing side of the business, but a key global player that could have landed anywhere, landed in Oxfordshire. It's testament to our strength and our ability to work with those developers.
But it's more about how we can ensure that their transition from breaking ground to investment to operational is smooth and that's where, again, the Team Oxfordshire approach comes together, through providing labour market support, ensuring that some of the programmes I mentioned can actually provide that supply chain of labour, ensuring that we work collectively with local authorities and planning authorities, site owners, developers, to really develop that
Team Oxfordshire approach for them, and make sure that transition is smooth. They will be an anchor institution, they'll create their own supply chains, which in turn will create social and economic opportunities for Oxfordshire businesses. So it's a really, it's a great thing. We should be very proud of landing that. Andrea, any kind of help that you would like to see offered by organisations like OxLEP or perhaps local or central government that's missing from the offer at the moment?
I think that the support that we get from local government, from central government is critical, that the pots of funding are made available through the funding institutions. If we are able to support the research in its earliest phases to grow and develop, we can then kick in with the sorts of seed funding and investment that takes that from the lab through to further and later stages of development ready for commercialisation. And keeps it here? Absolutely, yeah, critically.
But again, it's also about us as a region working with other regions in partnership. We have partnerships with Cambridgeshire, with institutions in London and further north, Oxford University Innovation is part of an alliance of 10 university technology transfer offices from Edinburgh through to MIT and Stanford University in the States.
Sharing that learning and expertise, seeing how other ecosystems are working and thriving, what we can learn from those ecosystems and how we can collaborate is also critical and working with government and those partners will enable us to join those dots between thriving ecosystems beyond Oxfordshire. Let's bring our conversation to a close with some final thoughts. What would be your advice to someone who's got a new business idea but doesn't know where to start?
Speak to people, get that signposting happening, whether that's OxLEP, if it's within the university ecosystem, speak to Oxford University Innovation, find out what's out there and what the strengths are of the different networks and organisations and where they can help you to deliver your ambition and the last word of advice would be don't give up. Having worked for smaller companies, I was employee 25 or 27 at the last organisation I worked at, I left they were over 150.
It's a long journey, it takes time, patience and perseverance, but don't let go of that idea, find the people who can help you deliver it. Huge thanks to Andrea Stewart from Oxford University Innovation and a big thank you also to Richard Bayard from OxLEP as well, and thank you for listening to OxTalks, sponsored by leading national law firm Mills & Reeve. There are now a number of editions of OxTalks available from where you normally get your podcasts.
Check out some of my previous conversations, including with Fiona Reid, associate Professor for Bioscience Entrepreneurship at UCL on how to start a business, Sarah Powell, HR Director at Belmond Le Manoir on creating a happy workforce and explore why you should invest in Oxfordshire with Artem Korolev, the CEO and founder of Mission Street, all well worth a listen. Please spread the word, tell your friends or colleagues about us and if you feel so inclined, leave us a review.
Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions on our social channels, and you can email your questions for inclusion in future editions too. The address is in the podcast description, it's always good to hear from you. Remember, business support in Oxfordshire is just an email or a phone call away. The OxLEP Business Support Tool can signpost you to expert help in a matter of minutes. It's definitely worth taking a look. Find it on our website Oxfordshirelep. com.
But for now, from the whole OxLEP team and from me, Howard Bentham, it's goodbye.