ARCC Innovations is nestled in the heart of South Cambridgeshire, one of the UK’s fastest growing economic regions and a globally renowned hub for tech and design companies. Charmingly dubbed ‘Silicon Fen’, as the East Anglian Fenlands’ version of California’s ‘Silicon Valley’, the phenomenon really took off in the early ‘90s, although its origins date back to the 1960s.

Following concerns that Cambridge was losing its character as a university town, as endless new buildings popped up in the 1950s and ‘60s, the institution encouraged the outsourcing of linked research and development centres into the countryside. Now the ‘Cambridge Cluster’, as it is also known, stretches from Bury St. Edmunds in the east, south to Saffron Walden, west to Huntingdon and north to Ely; within an approximate 30-mile radius of the university town (ARCC Innovations is less than ten miles from Cambridge).

With an abundance of relatively cheap land (cheaper than the City of London), good transport links and a high standard of living, the region has not struggled to attract business. Likewise, the pre-eminence of the university, which is the fourth best in the world, has aided the growth of the region. Graduates often stay in the region, and prosperous alumni have invested millions of pounds over the past decades. The Cambridge Science Park has also attracted significant development.

Silicon Fen also has a unique level of job security, thanks to a largely self-sustaining employment market. Although start-up turnover is relatively high, workers can rely on a safety-net of another similar job in another start-up being available. Networking is incredibly strong in the region, not just for personnel but for expertise and funding too. There are even organisations set up to encourage this, like the Cambridge Network.

From its relatively humble beginnings, Silicon Fen today counts somewhere between 1,000 and 3,500 companies with offices in the region, including tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Spotify. Usually drawing in around £14 billion per annum, with average profit growth of 7% and an employment rate of 7.4%, the region has been growing faster than China,

As home to the leaders of many tech sectors, from software and electronics to biotechnology, ARCC Innovations’ commitment to inspired design and quality engineering make it an obvious addition to Silicon Fen. Collaboration is at the heart of ARCC Innovations’ vision and so opening the office in the area in 2012 was natural. With such prestigious and inviting conditions, it has not been difficult to welcome like-minded businesses to join us. Here, there is ample space for undisturbed research and development, and the site is a stone’s throw away from Cambridge and relatively close to London.

With coronavirus forcing new working conditions, the atomised economic model of Silicon Fen is more resistant to serious disruption than businesses located within close proximity of each other. In any case, as soon as more normal circumstances become apparent, the region will hopefully continue to grow at the same rate it was.

Committed to keeping engineering in Britain, ARCC is pleased to be part of an economic family that is doing just that.

'Silicon Fen': Home to ARCC Innovations