Turning Norfolk’s world-class scientific know-how into successful businesses and thousands of East Anglian jobs is the challenge for Walter Herriot.

Best known for his role supporting the development of the Cambridge technology cluster, Mr Herriot – a guest speaker at the Shaping Norfolk’s Future 2010 conference – is confident that Norwich can follow in its neighbouring city’s footsteps.

This year saw the opening of the NRP Innovation Centre on the famous Norwich Research Park. Mr Herriot is chairman of the NRP’s Enterprise from Innovation Board and wants to see hundreds of spin-out businesses and 5000 highly skilled jobs for the region created over the coming decade.

Employing more than 11,000, the Norwich Research Park (NRP) comprises six institutions: the University of East Anglia, John Innes Centre, Institute of Food Research, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sainsbury Laboratory and the Genome Analysis Centre.   

Mr Herriot told the conference that although NRP boasted some “really important, world-class institutions”, they had perhaps not been as commercially motivated commercially as they could have been – hence his appointment.

“ Norwich is really well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that are opening up in the commercial world. If it seizes the moment, seizes the opportunity, it can achieve substantial growth and create employment and wealth in a city that’s already a very pleasant place to live and work in.”

He added: “Scientists and academics are not always ‘commercial animals’ and have a different approach. They have to realise that, yes, science is wonderful and important but the country cannot afford what it cannot afford. We have to change that mindset and take a look at all the commercial opportunities.”

 A former banker from Liverpool, Mr Herriot talked about his experiences in the 1970s and 80s, in which Barclays had played a prominent role in supporting the growth of the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’.

About 300 hi-tech businesses were set up in Cambridge between 1978 and 1984, forging the city’s place as a global leader in areas such as software, electronics and bio-technology.

Mr Herriot said that funding for the drive to create and support spin-out businesses from Norwich’s science cluster would be an issue and that the formation of a proposed Norfolk and Suffolk LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) would “help us to achieve our objectives”.

“Plus, we will need considerable support from local companies, just as Barclays and other businesses helped so much in Cambridge in the 1970s and 80s,” he added.