Conquering Cambridge

The international tech, pharma and life science businesses that call this storied university city home are creating an explosion of opportunities for project managers. Alexander Garrett investigates.

At the heart of Cambridge’s burgeoning biomedical campus on the southern fringes of the city sits a gleaming new edifice: the global HQ and R&D centre of drug company AstraZeneca. Construction of the £1bn building was a major project in itself, but project management will play an even more vital role going forward for the 2,000 R&D scientists who will work there.

“Because we’re a full-lifecycle company, doing everything from upfront drug research all the way to the manufacture and distribution of drugs, there are lots of different kinds of project management, ranging from running the research through to the management of clinical trials, which is a very specialised form of project management in itself,” says Gillian Magee, a senior project manager at AstraZeneca. “That goes through to building the capacity to manufacture and distribute those drugs. And then alongside that, we’re making sure we have the technology to manage a 100,000-person organisation and undertake global collaboration, working with universities and other institutions.”

Cambridge is one of the most important centres for life sciences in the world, with 430 companies and organisations supporting a specialised workforce of more than 15,500 and contributing around £2.9bn annually to the UK economy, according to AstraZeneca’s own 2018 dossier. It’s one of the main reasons why, in the APM-commissioned Golden Thread regional report, PwC has identified the ‘Cambridge Cluster’ as a key hub for project management in the UK. In and around the city, PwC observed, “the use of project management methodologies is established in the region’s construction, IT and pharmaceutical sectors, [along with] the more recent uptake in scientific research and academia”.

Inspiration and flair

For Claire Ruskin, executive director of business networking group the Cambridge Network: “Particular areas of strength in Cambridge where strong project management is essential include software, semiconductors and pharmaceutical development. The rigour of good practice is essential in these. Heavily regulated environments such as medtech need considerably more process through all the stages of development, but they still need the same inspiration and flair that has always been a hallmark of Cambridge.”

Alongside AstraZeneca, GSK and Astex also have a presence in Cambridge. The city is home to PIPMG – the Pharmaceutical Industry Project Management Group, founded back in 1985, which has the explicit aim of supporting the growth of the project management profession within the pharmaceutical sector. It hosts regular events and acts as a knowledge centre and social network for project management professionals, as well as posting job vacancies.

Cambridge also plays host to a string of nationally important research institutions, including two major hospitals (Addenbrooke’s and the Royal Papworth), Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute, the Wellcome Genome Campus and the Babraham Institute, to name just a few.

Within the pharmaceutical giants, the established nature of project management owes much to the complex process of running clinical trials and obtaining approvals for new drugs. Magee notes that at AstraZeneca, “There is quite a mature project management capability both on the science side and on the supporting side. There is an acknowledgement of its importance and the complexity of project management as a discipline.

She adds: “Recently, we have been working on centres of excellence for project and programme delivery, and looking to build things like competency frameworks, while also supporting people in understanding the career paths that are open to them as a project manager.” Tellingly, she says, “I don’t have to make an argument about the importance of project management or the fact that it is a skilled discipline in itself.”

Inroads into research

In the field of scientific research, project management is newer and still in the process of establishing itself. At the Babraham Institute, which undertakes world-class research into human biology, CIO Robert Pyke says: “Until recently, project management techniques were restricted to IT projects and building projects but didn’t extend beyond that.” Karen Vincent, head of governance and projects, joined the Institute in early 2019 and has been instrumental in creating a wider project framework for the organisation as a whole. Having a dedicated project manager on research projects is still unusual, she says, but is starting to become less so. “Some of the larger programmes are starting to have them. I think it has often been at the suggestion of the funding bodies, who are used to project management and have benefited from it. They’ve started asking researchers to use it as well.” The EU, in particular, says Pyke, is keen on having extensive project plans in place before it funds research.

He is confident that project management will play an increasingly important role in research in future. “Going forward, the availability of big data will mean using data from many more organisations to look at novel ways of doing things. It will mean going back through the archives and seeing if there is data you can reuse. That implies that you have to bring much larger groups together in a much more coordinated way, and that’s going to be driven by project management.”

In the past, research “has been about talented individuals with brilliant ideas”, Pyke says. “In the future, it will be much more about using all the data that has been accumulated in previous years.”

Silicon Fen

Cambridge is also the UK’s top centre for technology, ranging from semiconductors to artificial intelligence. Founded in 1960 Cambridge Consultants has a world-class reputation for bringing these new offerings to market. Richard Snell, its programme director, says: “Project management is integral to us as a company. Our projects are our profit centres, and how we manage them is absolutely crucial to our success.” This is especially true in the translation of new technologies into marketable products, where there are clear cost, time and functionality parameters, he says.   

Earlier this year, Cambridge Consultants took part in the ‘Cambridge ventilator’ project, designing and developing a ventilator to treat COVID-19 patients using existing components in just 46 days, in collaboration with suppliers and a manufacturing partner. “There was a lot of excellent achievement, and project management was at the heart of that,” says Snell. “In the event, the ventilator was not needed but we learned a huge amount and I think we’ll be using that experience for years to come.”

One of the most challenging areas his firm faces, he says, is developing the latest generation of products drawing on a range of different technologies. That requires a multidisciplinary approach. “For example, you could have a connected device where you have a physical device plus embedded software, plus a wireless connection to a back-end cloud-based server, say, and some sort of digital service connected to that. In that case, you have a wide variety of technical challenges, and development cycles that are quite different.” Handling the development of so many different technologies in a coordinated way requires very broad understanding from a project manager, he says. “And that’s quite a rare commodity.”

The University of Cambridge is, of course, central to much of the innovation that flows out of the city, often in the form of spin-outs and technology transfers. Kevin Brown is a portfolio manager at UIS, the university’s information service, as well as being chair of APM’s East of England branch. “The university has identified that we have staff for whom project management is not their primary role, but they use project management techniques as part of their role.”

In response, the university has been running a series of apprenticeships in project management, designed to ensure that staff can run projects effectively as part of their day job. The scheme, which is delivered by external project management training provider Provek, is now in its fifth cohort, offering the Associate Project Manager Apprenticeship as a 13-month programme. Project management is the most popular apprenticeship at the university, with 26 members of staff currently enrolled on the programme, says Leonie Isaacson, learning and development consultant at the university.

Capitalising on collaboration

As a place to pursue a career in project management, most seem to agree that Cambridge’s strength is in the variety of work available. “Cambridge has 5,000 high-skill businesses, from the most ambitious start-ups through to scaling businesses and multi-billion international businesses,” says Ruskin. “And in general, they lead their technical and scientific projects from Cambridge.” It is also a highly collaborative economy, with companies and research institutions that are located close together, especially in the biomedical campus and the science park, partnering up in a way that owes something to their shared origins in academia. Snell compares it to his time working on North Sea oil platforms, when “there were times when the whip needed to be cracked”. In Cambridge, he says, the major challenges are presented by science and engineering, and everybody works together to find solutions. “As a result, you are drawn into a very collaborative thing, because it’s not like two opinions against each other. Instead, you are collectively trying to overcome the challenges nature is throwing at us.”

Yet in the world of research, at least, project managers must learn not to be too obtrusive, says the Babraham Institute’s Karen Vincent. “If you came in and started talking about the detailed behind-the-scenes things, people wouldn’t listen to you. It’s fine to have the documentation if that helps you manage the project, but I wouldn’t necessarily share it all or make it available to everyone,” she says. “It’s better to take a softly, softly approach sometimes.”

And because of the highly technical nature of much of the work, project management skills need to be combined with, and respectful of, subject knowledge. “A lot of the work has to be led and project managed by people who do have content richness,” says Ruskin. “In projects where you are achieving either a first or a big step forward, where you are going for revolution rather than evolution, having people leading the project who can spot the direction and take bigger steps than you would in a normal project management environment is probably very important.”

And whether it’s by revolution or evolution, project managers are certainly conquering this most innovative city.

Capital work

Project management also plays a key role in infrastructure and major building works around Cambridge, which has seen a wave of development over the past few years. Key projects include:

The A14. The upgrade to the 21-mile Cambridge to Huntingdon road has been described as the UK’s biggest road project. It cost £1.5bn and opened in May 2020.

Cambridge South. Work is under way to build a new railway station in the south of the city. Completion is due in 2022.

Alconbury Weald. Just to the north of nearby Huntingdon, Alconbury Weald was the UK’s largest single housing development when it was announced, featuring some 6,000 homes and a business park that has attracted more than 60 businesses.

CAM Metro. The Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro would see autonomous trams running around Cambridge, including an underground section linking the science park in the north of the city to the biomedical campus in the south. The plans have been in the pipeline for a number of years and are awaiting funding.

CNFE. Next on the horizon is the development of a 47-hectare Anglian Water site into the Cambridge Northern Fringe East district, which could offer 5,000 homes and 500,000 sq ft of offices, labs and employment space.