51乱伦

London Life Sciences Week: The budget warm-up act for UK life sciences

The government used London Life Sciences Week to underline once again that life sciences sit at the core of its industrial strategy, signalling ahead of next week鈥檚 Budget that it is prepared to back that claim with funding and regulatory reform. Centre stage was a package of more than in combined public and industry capital for eight 鈥渟ustainable medicines manufacturing鈥� projects. The Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme brings together more than £54 million of government capital, matched by over £20 million from industry, and channels it into a tightly focused portfolio that stretches from robotics-heavy 鈥渇uture factories鈥�, circular approaches to capturing volatile anaesthetic gases, through to technologies that repurpose legacy nuclear material into next-generation cancer radiotherapies. In parallel with the manufacturing push, almost £1 million is being allocated to the MHRA via the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund to address regulatory challenges around engineered bacteriophages. These bacteria hunting viruses are among the more promising tools in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, but they require an entirely new regulatory playbook.

Ministers choreographed these announcements carefully. London Life Sciences Week was framed as part of a wider investment story, with sector leaders hosted at Downing Street as the capital continues to present itself as Europe鈥檚 natural home for life sciences capital. London-based firms have secured around £1.6 billion in venture funding so far in 2025, more than three times Paris, albeit heavily concentrated in a small group of large deals.

The investment story did not stop there. has committed 鈧�30 million to Sofinnova鈥檚 new 鈧�637 million pan-European life sciences fund, building on the £435 million it has already deployed into 13 specialist vehicles. It is also preparing to launch a new 鈥渧enture link鈥� initiative for pension funds, as part of a wider package aimed at strengthening their ability to invest in high-growth companies. The bank will publish enhanced information on its commitments to venture funds, helping pension schemes to shape strategy, lower barriers to entry and, ultimately, unlock billions more in long-term capital for UK science, technology, and innovation. Alongside this sits the creation of the , designed to draw more UK pension funds and other institutional investors into innovative, high-growth businesses. The initial fund will seek to raise 鈥渉undreds of millions of pounds鈥�. Aegon, NatWest, Cushion and M&G have already committed to the first vehicle, which is targeting £200 million in its initial fundraising round, due to close at the end of the current financial year.

Liverpool bets on AI chemistry

The story of the week was not confined to London. Up the M6, is quietly but steadily positioning itself as a serious AI city region, with the University of Liverpool unveiling plans for a £100 million AI centre focused on applying AI to chemistry to create new high-tech materials and products. The lab will be housed in a new £111 million campus building, which the university hopes to open by 2031. The centre is intended to strengthen both the Liverpool City Region and the UK鈥檚 position as a global leader in AI-driven materials research, development, and innovation. It comes on the back of Liverpool being named a finalist for the 2026 European Capital of Innovation Awards and Kyndryl鈥檚 decision to open a new AI Innovation Lab in the city, targeting up to 1,000 software engineering and AI roles within three years. Beneath these headline projects, there is evidence of a much broader ecosystem shift. This year has seen a record 26 AI companies formed in Liverpool. The number of active AI companies has grown by 98.1% over five years to just over 100. Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, is explicit: 鈥淚 want the Liverpool City Region to be a leader in Artificial Intelligence鈥�.

Nuclear resilience, city funds and Scotland鈥檚 life sciences vision

Other regions were not standing still.

In , a £2 million grant is enabling the university to create a nuclear facility control room simulator as part of an £88.5 million capital programme. This simulator will allow researchers and operators to model cyberattacks on nuclear facilities and test responses safely. It sits at the intersection of nuclear engineering, operations, and cybersecurity. The North West has long been a cornerstone of the UK鈥檚 nuclear industry, and investments of this kind further entrench that strength.

In , Mayor Andy Burnham has launched a £1 billion public investment fund designed to capitalise on the city region鈥檚 sustained economic growth. The fund is expected to support around 30 projects, including schemes such as Mayfield and Sister, and will also back new lab space. The ambition is to unlock a further £1.3 billion of private capital. I wrote a piece in October about the rise of Manchester.

Further north, launched its life sciences strategy, with a headline ambition to grow the sector to £25 billion by 2035. Actions include a feasibility study into increasing lab provision for start-ups and growing firms. That feasibility work matters because it is an explicit admission that access to suitable lab space is a constraint on growth.

AI鈥檚 darker edge and the rise of digital security hubs

While frontier model developers continue to dominate the AI narrative, one of the sharper side effects of the AI boom is emerging in the security space. A recent report found that deepfake-related fraud attempts jumped by 3,000% in 2023. Investigators also uncovered what is being described as the world鈥檚 first cyberattack in which AI handled around 80 to 90% of the operation. Against that backdrop, the UK鈥檚 digital security sector is quietly expanding. More than 3,000 digital security companies now operate in the UK. Around a quarter are in the established phase and roughly half are in growth mode. London remains the primary hub, with Edinburgh, Manchester and Leeds forming a second tier of emerging security strongholds.  Investment is flowing too. This week TMT ID, a London-based specialist in online verification and fraud detection, secured £30 million to accelerate its expansion.  Digital security firms are typically office-based rather than lab-based, but their requirements are far from generic. They demand robust digital infrastructure, high levels of physical and cyber security and strong access to technical talent.

Defence tech rising

Defence tech is moving steadily from the margins of the European innovation story into the mainstream. A new Dealroom report on European defence tech finds that four of the top ten defence hubs in Europe, ranked by venture investment since 2019, are in the UK: London ($485 million), Reading ($169), Oxford ($114 million) and Bristol ($105 million). This week brought a more tangible example. Bristol-based Rowden Technologies, which describes itself as one of the UK鈥檚 fastest-growing technology firms, and London manufacturer Isembard announced a partnership to scale sovereign UK production of advanced sensing systems for national security. The collaboration is expected to create around 100 jobs across the South West over the next year.

For landlords and developers in Bristol, Reading, Oxford and parts of London, the expansion of the defence tech sector represents a clear opportunity, while defence tech occupiers may increasingly view these locations as some of the most attractive places to base and grow their operations.

Capital flows: 叠别补耻丑耻谤蝉迟鈥檚 Q3 numbers

latest equity investment data for Q3 2025 present a picture of a market that is softer than last quarter but stronger than a year ago. There were 1,370 deals completed in Q3, compared with 1,422 in Q2. Yet Q3 2025 still saw a 9% increase in deals on Q3 2024, and a 5.1% increase in total value, with £4.45 billion raised over the quarter. Regionally, the West Midlands stands out. Alongside the North West, it is one of only two regions seeing growth in both deal count and value. The West Midlands recorded a 37% uplift in deals and a 152% surge in value, although this was heavily influenced by a £100 million raise by Birmingham-based Joblogic, which accounted for over 40% of all investment in the region.

Sectorally, software remains the engine of deal flow, with 663 rounds in Q3. Information technology, telecommunications and data accounted for 417, and supply chain, manufacturing and commerce models for 404. Within software and tech, SaaS and AI continue to lead both in amount raised and number of deals. The largest percentage increases in capital raised were in precision medicine (up 292%, securing £216 million), cleantech (up 217%, with £952 million) and blockchain (up 144%, with £342 million).

For real estate, the message is that, even as the market adjusts, capital is still being directed towards knowledge-intensive, IP-rich sectors. The strong performance of the West Midlands and the North West indicates that regional innovation ecosystems are not just expanding but maturing in depth and quality.

Looking ahead: themes for 2026

As 2025 draws towards its close, I have started to reflect on the year and to think about 2026, working closely with colleagues across 51乱伦鈥檚 science and innovation team. Funding conditions and the cost of capital remain central, but several other themes are also shaping the sector. Themes that are front of mind and will form part of our wrap up of 2025 include:

• M&A, licensing, and the patent cliff.
• UK/US pricing and tariffs.
• UK industrial strategy and broader government policies.
• Global competition, particularly the rise of China.
• UK regional investment and prospects.
• AI x Science.
• Global talent wars, visa politics and skills gaps.
• Trust, social license and ESG.
• Other innovation sectors 鈥� quantum, defence tech etc.
• Continued growth in outsourcing.
• The transformation of big pharma.

Sitting above all of this is the growing dominance of AI itself. From Microsoft鈥檚 鈥淎gent 365鈥� vision, which envisages firms with 100,000 employees being supported by 500,000 to a million AI agents, to Elon Musk鈥檚 claim that work could become largely optional within a decade, the narratives are unabashedly ambitious. Whatever the true timetable, both the quantum and character of workplace and infrastructure demand are set to change, potentially quite profoundly. For owners, investors and occupiers, the real risk is that its impact on how, where, and why we use space is misunderstood or underestimated.

Other reads and signals

A few additional developments worth noting this week:

• have agreed a collaboration to advance life sciences innovation and accelerate translation across the UK. Flagship, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has made the UK one of its first major hubs outside the US, further deepening links between its biotech portfolio and the UK ecosystem.
• , Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting warning that urgent changes are needed to pricing and uptake processes for new medicines and health technologies if confidence in the UK life sciences sector is to be restored.
• has closed an oversubscribed $115 million Series D round to support its work on targeting DNA damage response mechanisms in cancer.
• and Palantir have launched a partnership to upskill NHS staff in AI and data, reinforcing the deepening connection between health systems and data infrastructure.
• , developments around the EIT and Europe鈥檚 innovation framework are continuing to evolve.
• continues to shrug off AI bubble fears, reporting a 62% increase in revenues to $57 billion in the three months to the end of October.
• has confirmed the next construction phase of the multibillion-pound project.
• The European Spinout Report 2025 finds that the UK, Switzerland, France and Germany lead in spinout value creation relative to their size. Cambridge, Oxford, ETH Zurich and EPFL top the rankings, with TU Munich rounding out the top five.
• Centessa Pharmaceuticals has completed a follow-on equity offering, raising approximately $250 million by issuing over 11.6 million American Depositary Shares, at a discount to market. The raise appears designed to shore up its balance sheet and accelerate clinical programmes.
• has appointed a new CEO, five months after CEO Ilan Gur announced he was stepping down.
• from The Entrepreneurs Network shows that foreign-born founders are behind 54% of the UK鈥檚 top 100 fastest-growing companies, despite immigrants making up just 15% cent of the population.