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Our latest Biotech report features Labour Market Trends, Yvette Cleland, CEO, Cpl Life Sciences comments:
Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.
There are no shorts cuts in Evolution. Observing the British Biotech sector through the prism of live and open vacancies is a great gauge on the condition, and indeed fortunes of the industry. Last year saw a 31% increase in open roles for Scientists in Biotech versus 2019, the total British Biotech sector saw an overall increase across all live roles of 22% year on year. The UK biotech companies have been at the heart of international efforts to create vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to tackle the pandemic, whilst continuing to push the frontier of innovative new therapies.
The UK is home to three of the top ten universities in the world for life sciences – Oxford, Cambridge and UCL – UK research accounts for 12% of all life sciences academic citations globally, with the UK’s share of the top 1% of these standing at 18%. The UK also performs well at transferring academic knowledge into innovative start-ups as 42% of UK biotech companies have been spun out from academic institutions.
This continued success story for the UK see’s us sitting as the third largest global life sciences cluster, rivalling San Francisco and Boston Massachusetts. Since 2012 the UK Biotech sector has seen a 1000% increase in investment, last year during a global pandemic investment rose again with 2.8b of investment. One critical question at this stage is what could possibly hold us back in this amazing sector with such impressive growth, particularly around Advanced Therapies?
By 2030 the UK will require an additional 130,000 new highly skilled workers to fulfil the roles being created. Unfortunately, where the UK falls short is in its responsibility in creating the talent required for this growing industry.
With initiatives in place such as the newer apprenticeship schemes in Clinical Research, Regulatory Affairs and ATMP, responsible employers who engage and utilise these resources could be playing their part in future proofing the industry. Uptake has been limited for these great schemes designed by the industry for the industry.
Until this world leading sector wakes up to the issues around skill shortages and owning their part in the journey ahead, the great strides in the last 10 years will begin to walk backwards rapidly. The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. Our success will be compromised if we do not develop the talent to lead the pathway closer to continued success.
Read the full report here.
For more information about Life Sciences, please reach out to:
Yvette Cleland, Chief Executive Officer- Cpl Life Sciences, [email protected]