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The public awareness
of the Science Park and its role in expanding the high tech economy
around Southampton continues to grow. This increasing profile
attracts VIPs to the Park and the last 5 months have seen an
impressive crop of visitors.
William Hague, Shadow
Foreign Secretary, visited the Science Park in late September as
part of a fact-finding tour of the Southampton area. He took a
particular interest in Science Park companies Mesophotonics and
Symetrica both of which have leading technologies in the homeland
security market.
Eve Turner, Head of BBC South visited the Science Park at the
end of November 2006 to visit Mesophotonics and Symetrica and to
understand the role that the Science Park plays in supporting
spin-out companies from Southampton University as they seek to
establish themselves in the market.
Lord Sainsbury of Turville, until recently Minister for
Science and Innovation, visited the Science Park at the end of
December 2006 to gather evidence for his review of the Government's
Science and Innovation Policies. He received presentations from
three University of Southampton spin-out companies, Ilika, Symetrica
and BAC2.
Kate Barker, Member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy
Committee and leader of the recent Barker Enquiry into the
operation of the Planning System, addressed a meeting at Chilworth
and visited several companies in order to gather evidence for her
enquiry into the Planning System.
In January the Science
Park received a delegation of high ranking Chinese officials from
the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the
Chinese Embassy in London, including Mr Xian'en Zhang, Director
General of MOST and Dr Baoqing Wang, Minister-Counsellor at the
Chinese Embassy. The purpose of the visit was to explore
opportunities for partnering in science and technology between
leading UK and Chinese universities and science parks. The party
paid a visit to Fibercore, whose research and production facility
for specialist optical fibres at the Science Park supply the world
market, including China. Also, in January, we
received a US Delegation from Texas, seeking to establish
links between US companies, science parks and universities and
similar organisations in the UK. They visited Ilika, Nanotecture,
Perpetuum and Mesophotonics, all University spin-out companies based
on the Science Park. |
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