University outpost in Govan could create Clyde ‘Silicon Valley’

Plans for a new multi-million-pound waterfront campus that could create “Scotland’s Silicon Valley on the Clyde” have been revealed.

Young female scientist working in the laboratory

The University of Glasgow hopes the new campus in Govan can make an area renowned for shipbuilding and industry in the last century synonymous with innovation in the 21st century.

The Clyde Waterfront Innovation Campus (CWIC) will act as a centre of excellence for a range of new technologies, where academics can work alongside partners in ­industry.

The new campus will comprise an enhanced James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC), which will focus on industries like nanofabrication for quantum technology and photonics, and a precision medicine living laboratory that will flow into the existing clinical innovation zone at the nearby Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

So far £28 million has been committed from the university and £27.5m from the Glasgow City Region City Deal. The university is bidding for a further £63m in funding.

It said the proposed campus on Linthouse Road would bring hundreds of jobs to the area.

University of Glasgow principal Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli said: “The University of Glasgow’s plans for investment in Govan are an incredibly exciting new chapter for the university and the city – and can be as transformational for Govan and the Clyde waterfront as our move to the west end from the city centre was in 1870.

“As Glasgow’s largest university, we are determined to play a full and active part in the public life of our city and our new campus on the south bank of the Clyde will see even more of Glasgow’s communities benefit from our activity, while creating a genuine cluster of excellence in several of the leading industries of the coming decades.”

He added: “Shipbuilding and heavy industry in Govan and on the Clyde waterfront were the pillars of Glasgow’s industrial excellence in the 19th and 20th centuries. I have no doubt the innovation agenda and industries like quantum technology, nanofabrication and precision medicine can be to the 21st century Glasgow economy what shipbuilding was in the past.

“As a city, we can’t afford to look backwards to past glories – we have to reimagine Glasgow’s entrepreneurial legacy for the 21st century. And the establishment of the Clyde Waterfront Innovation Campus could create Scotland’s ­Silicon Valley on the Clyde.”