Innovation

driving future economic development

Maidstone is perhaps best known as a centre for service industries but it is also home to innovators in the engineering, manufacturing and medical services sectors. Listed below are case studies from across these sectors.

Universities are also important drivers of innovation. In addition to easy access to London’s research universities and institutes, the University of Kent has campuses in nearby Medway and Canterbury and is now ranked in the top 25% of UK universities for research capability (according to the latest Research Assessment Exercise), including a top ten ranking for Statistics and Operational Research. A recent innovation in miniaturised antennae technology with wireless capability has attracted interest from the space agency, NASA.

Canterbury Christ Church University has diversified from its roots as a teacher training college and now has a faculty of Business and Management, students from which were placed 4th in the 2009 national finals of the IBM University Business Challenge, out of 280 initial entries.

Kent Clinic (Institute)
The Kent Clinic will be a landmark investment in the development of 21st century healthcare provision and will introduce specialist tertiary clinical services to Kent for the first time, including Neurosurgery and Robotic and laser guidance assisted surgery. The £100m Clinic will have a focus upon research and innovation, supporting a drive to attract specialists normally located in London. 

A key philosophy of this new healthcare concept will be clinician-led patient care which is reflected in a new model of shared ownership by clinicians and patients with residential healthcare needs.

Whatman (GE Healthcare Group)
Whatman is a long established Maidstone business acquired by GE Healthcare in 2008 through a £363m acquisition. A global leader in filtration technology, that provides innovative life science products to the scientific community. Whatman has developed total sample preparation solutions through its robust line of filtration devices and membranes.  The Company's breakthrough protein array technology and FTA® Technology to capture archive and purify DNA at room temperature, enables it to provide novel solutions for the analytical, health care, and bioscience markets.

Genzyme Diagnostics UK
Many of Genzyme Diagnostics’ Critical Raw Materials are manufactured in the UK at the Henry Blair Building (HBB) in Allington, Maidstone. The Quality Assurance, Logistics, Maintenance and Engineering departments are also based on this site.

Cell Projects, Harrietsham
Highly innovative Molecular Biology Solutions for Electroporation, PCR, DNA Buccal Swabs, DNA Isolation Kits and other Life Science Technologies.

Kemet International, Maidstone
The 2009 winner of the Queen’s Award for Export, Kemet International is an industry leader in diamond polishing and finishing, using Diamond Superabrasives and specialist processing machinery.

International Minimal Access Centre for Surgery (IMACS)
£multi-million new surgical training centre developed by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in co-operation with Olympus, one of the world’s leading specialists in optical devices.

The technology being used in Maidstone is a first for the UK and will enable new business to be developed across the UK and northern Europe.

Hunter Off-Site Limited
UK's most advanced timber frame house manufacturer, supplying conventional homes to the affordable housing market using Category 1 Modern Method of Construction and the process called Volumetric Off Site Manufacturing, V-OSM.

The provision of affordable housing in Maidstone and the South East generally will be increasingly significant to future labour market competitiveness and Maidstone hosts an impressive cluster of businesses in the construction sector.