Biomanufacturing in Tees Valley

The Tees Valley area has an established integrated industrial economy, an efficient local supply chain and significant academic connections.

With new biomanufacturing processes and techniques available, sustainable and profitable growth makes achieving net zero a realistic goal.

Sector and market opportunity

The UK is at the forefront of the growing biomanufacturing sector, building upon the established chemicals and bioscience excellence that already exists.

Biomanufacturing can bring positive low-carbon solutions to industrial sectors, with potentially viable routes to clean growth.

Establishing a base in the Tees Valley region gives investors a huge chance to develop, scale up and commercialise sustainable manufacturing processes in biopharmaceuticals, food and feed, biochemicals and fuels. All of these are multi-billion global industries.

Growth prospects

With the increasing use of biomanufacturing, the global industrial biotechnology market is set to be worth £432 billion by 2026.

Location

The region is a de-risked biomanufacturing location with excellent research and innovation facilities. The North East of England contains the largest cluster of process, chemicals and energy companies in the UK.

Tees Valley is also home to the largest integrated chemical complex in the UK, and the second largest in Western Europe in terms of manufacturing capacity. Companies active locally include Marlow Foods, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Calysta and GlaxoSmithKline.

Connectivity

The region is a major hub for the movement of rail freight. A number of rail-connected facilities are in operation, handling more than 100 freight trains each week.

Darlington Station offers fast passenger rail links to the rest of the UK, including London and Edinburgh.

There’s also direct access to over 200 international destinations from 4 nearby airports including Teesside International and Manchester.

Connected to the global supply chain, the ports of Tees and Hartlepool are key assets to the area. The Tees, England’s largest exporting port , is also the UK’s best-connected feeder port.

Local talent and skills

There’s over 8,000 highly skilled workers employed nearby in the biosciences industry.

With 5 leading universities in the area, there are over 2,000 industry-ready graduates every year, specialising in chemistry, biology and engineering. Research and expertise

The National Horizons Centre is Teesside University’s £22 million centre of excellence for the biosciences and healthcare sector.

The Centre for Process Innovation is a leading independent technology innovation centre and founding member of the UK Government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult. It has extensive expertise in scaling biotechnologies for multiple markets and industry sectors.

Enabling clean growth

As the world moves away from the use of fossil fuels, there is increasing global demand for low-carbon solutions from a range of sectors.

The region provides industry with viable routes to clean growth, with a location offering an integrated and skilled biomanufacturing ecosystem.

Local and national government support

The Tees Valley Combined Authority helps businesses plan their investment and access the support and finance necessary for growth. It also ensures businesses work successfully with the Tees Valley Business Board.

Local incentives and funding include the Teesside Freeport, which offers tax and customs benefits to eligible businesses and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which offers early and later stage debt and equity finance to SMEs.