For an international company assessing a UK life sciences location, a major anchor institution can provide an immediate point of reference. It reduces the need to investigate every organisation and relationship before deciding whether a place deserves further attention.
When that name is no longer there, the system has to make its own capability legible: what expertise it holds, how its organisations are connected, and which parts of that proposition an outside party can actually verify.
This question arose from the EFEC UK–China Life Sciences Innovation Hub’s recent engagement work in China.