The seventh Birmingham-born company has entered University of Birmingham Enterprise’s award-winning Med Tech incubator, Unit 9.
Birmingham Biotech LTD, which has operations in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the UK, is a manufacturer and supplier of innovative medical diagnostic equipment and devices. It joined Unit 9 to make the join the ecosystem at Birmingham Research Park, which has been successfully nurturing high-growth companies since 1986.
The Unit 9 incubator opened in 2022 as a specialised incubator to support emerging companies in the second city’s thriving medical technology scene. In 2023 it won the prestigious ‘Place-based initiative of the Year’ award from PraxisAuril, the UK’s professional association for Knowledge Exchange and commercialisation between universities and businesses.
Unit 9 was founded as a collaboration between University of Birmingham Enterprise, the GBSLEP Growth Hub and the West Midlands Combined Authority, to support innovation, creativity, and growth in the city.
It is part of a joined-up ecosystem that surrounds the University of Birmingham campus, and provides short-term incubation for tenants, who also benefit from a business support programme, an equipment-sharing agreement with the University.
Unit 9 is located at Birmingham Research Park, which has a range of landing spaces for companies wishing to locate in Birmingham, including the BioHub Birmingham®, which provides facilities for cell culture of microbiology work to Unit 9’s tenants.
The Midlands health and life sciences sector is home to the UK’s largest cluster of medical technology businesses1, and boasts strengths in the 4Ds – diagnostics, devices, digital and data – as well as world-leading research institutes, and the clinical infrastructure for large-scale trials.
Angie Reynolds, Chief Operations Officer at University of Birmingham Enterprise commented: “Birmingham is entering a new era of medical innovation. We created Unit 9 as a space to complement the existing infrastructure for translational work in the city and Birmingham Biotech are a perfect fit for the incubator, which has already benefitted six other Birmingham-born companies.” Birmingham Biotech’s Managing Director, Michael Hsu said, “The Unit 9 incubator is the perfect lab space for us. It’s the right-size, low-cost, and in a good-location. It is with easy access to the University campus, research departments and hospitals which will facilitate current and future collaborative research activities. We will also benefit from business support from University of Birmingham Enterprise and other facilities at the BioHub Birmingham.”
