Harwell Campus has closed 2025 as one of the UK’s most dynamic science and innovation clusters, with a record year for company growth, global investment and world-first breakthroughs across quantum, space, life sciences and AI.

Over the past 12 months, 33 companies chose to move to or expand at Harwell Campus, underlining the Campus’s position as a destination of choice for high-growth science and technology businesses seeking to scale. From global leaders to fast-growing startups, organisations have been attracted by Harwell’s unique combination of specialist infrastructure, access to national research facilities and a highly collaborative innovation ecosystem.

Harwell Campus: 2025 in review

Among the year’s most significant arrivals and expansions were QuEra Computing, which opened a UK hub at Harwell to accelerate commercial quantum computing; Amber Therapeutics, which relocated its headquarters to the Campus following a landmark $100m Series A to scale advanced medical device manufacturing; and Moderna, which officially opened its Innovation and Technology Centre – the UK’s first onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility, with capacity to produce up to 100 million doses per year.

2025 also marked the International Year of Quantum, with Harwell at the centre of major national investment and commercial momentum. The launch of the Harwell Quantum Cluster set out ambitions to grow more than 100 quantum companies, create 1,000 high-value jobs and attract £1 billion of investment over the next decade. This was reinforced by a £670 million government boost for quantum computing, including long-term funding for the National Quantum Computing Centre at Harwell, alongside new commercial partnerships and technology firsts.

The Campus continued to support companies scaling globally from Harwell, including Lacuna Space, which expanded its satellite network to deliver connectivity to some of the world’s most remote regions, and Oxford Dynamics, whose AI platform supported the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review by analysing thousands of complex submissions at scale.

Investment in infrastructure also enabled future growth, with Harwell becoming the first UK science campus to deploy a smart energy grid, unlocking sustainable power and supporting millions of sq ft of planned expansion. This forms part of a £300 million investment programme to significantly increase lab space and advanced manufacturing capacity for growing occupiers.

The innovation pipeline remains strong, with structured support for startups through programmes such as ESA BIC and Quantum BIC. Since 2011, 175 UK startups have been supported, achieving a 95% survival rate and generating £340 million in GVA. In 2025 alone, ESA BIC space companies raised £10 million in private capital, while the first two companies graduated from the Quantum BIC.

Across its four core clusters — Space, Energy, Health and Quantum — Harwell now hosts more than 250 pioneering organisations and a community of over 7,000 scientists, engineers and innovators. With major new companies joining, existing businesses scaling, and continued delivery of world-first science, 2025 stands out as another milestone year, reinforcing Harwell Campus’s role at the forefront of global science, technology and commercial innovation.

Looking to the future, the Campus has plans to grow further with a plan to deliver an additional 4.5 million sq ft. of advanced manufacturing, laboratory, and office space – ensuring the 700-acre campus continues to power the UK’s science, technology, and industrial growth for years to come.

This next phase of growth supports the UK Government’s commitment to regional innovation and the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, positioning Harwell as the cornerstone of a globally recognised ‘Science and Innovation Supercluster’.