Oxfordshire’s Equinox 2035 strategy launched at House of Commons

The new Equinox 2035 Strategy, launched yesterday at the House of Commons yesterday, set an ambition to attract investment from 10 Tier 1 US venture capital funds and 10 UK pension funds, establish six global corporates with a permanent Oxfordshire presence and rank the county among the world’s top three innovation-intensive clusters per capita.

Equinox is an Oxfordshire-wide partnership bringing together businesses, universities, investors, government and communities behind a shared direction for the county’s innovation economy. The University of Oxford provides the Equinox secretariat, convening partners, advocating for the region and activating collaboration across the ecosystem.

Hosted by Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds, the House of Commons event heard from Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and chair of the Equinox Council; Dr Olga Kozlova, director of innovation and engagement, University of Oxford and chief executive of Equinox; and Peter Leek, chief scientific officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits.

Oxfordshire already has around 3,000 high-tech businesses employing approximately 30,000 people, alongside major science and innovation assets including Harwell and the UK’s first AI Growth Zone at Culham. Companies including Moderna, BMW Group and the Ellison Institute for Technology have invested in the county.

The University of Oxford has supported the creation of more than 350 companies through its innovation partner, Oxford University Innovation, which since 2011 has collectively attracted more than £8 billion in investment. In the first half of 2026 alone, Oxford spinouts raised €908 million, more than Germany’s entire university ecosystem combined (€864 million), and representing 20% of the entirety of investment in spinouts across Europe.

The launch follows new analysis from Public First and the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board highlighting the exceptional research intensity and spinout performance of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, alongside the opportunity to build greater global scale across capital, commercialisation, talent and infrastructure.

The Equinox strategy sets out what that opportunity could mean for Oxfordshire: connecting its research, businesses, talent, investment and innovation assets more effectively; creating a clearer front door for international investment; helping more companies start, scale and grow; and ensuring that growth creates jobs, skills and opportunities for people across the county.

The strategy focuses activity around four priorities – global competitiveness & strategic positioning; capital mobilisation & scaling high-growth companies; equity, opportunity & shared prosperity; and data-driven ecosystem intelligence.

Among the actions set out in the strategy is the establishment of a regional Inward Investment Unit, creating a single front door for investors, corporates and developers and connecting opportunities across Oxfordshire’s science parks, universities and innovation assets. The strategy also includes plans to strengthen access to capital and investment readiness for high-growth companies, develop employer-led skills pathways into innovation sectors and create a shared regional data platform to support investment, company growth and skills planning.

The Equinox 2035 Strategy is available at https://www.oxfordequinox.com/strategy

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Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and chair of the Equinox Council, said: “Oxfordshire is a national asset with global reach. Our challenge is not whether we can innovate – we have demonstrated that decisively. The question now is how we ensure the benefits of that innovation are anchored here in the UK: that our companies can start, scale and stay; that our talent sees a future here; and that the prosperity created by innovation is felt far beyond our laboratories and campuses, in the communities that surround them.

“This strategy sets out how Equinox will help meet that opportunity. Together, we can ensure that Oxfordshire’s innovation remains world-leading and yet deliver for the benefit of all.”

Dr Olga Kozlova, chief executive of Equinox, said: “Oxford has extraordinary ingredients: ideas, talent, businesses, investors and globally significant research. Our opportunity now is to make those connections work even harder.

“Over the past two years, Equinox has brought together people and organisations from across Oxfordshire to understand what our ecosystem needs. We are now moving from engagement to delivery – making Oxfordshire easier to access and navigate, helping more businesses grow here and connecting more people with the jobs, skills and opportunities that growth creates.”

Peter Leek, chief scientific officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits, said: “I’ve experienced first-hand what it means to build a deep-tech company in Oxford, starting with world-class science and then bringing together the people, investment, expertise and partnerships needed to turn that into a business with global ambitions.

“Oxford is an extraordinary place to start a company like ours. The harder part is what comes next. Deep-tech businesses need patient capital, specialist talent, infrastructure and customers if they are going to scale and compete internationally.

“The opportunity for Oxfordshire is to make that journey easier for the next generation of founders – so that more of the companies created here can grow here and become global businesses from Oxford.”

Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, said: “Oxford is known around the world for innovation, but our success cannot only be measured by the number of companies we create or the investment we attract. It also has to be measured by what that success means for people who live here.

“Thirty thousand new jobs would represent a huge opportunity for Oxfordshire, but only if people across our communities can see a route into them. That means investing in skills and apprenticeships, creating good jobs and making sure that young people growing up here can see a future for themselves in Oxfordshire’s innovation economy.

“That is why bringing economic ambition and opportunity together matters. We should be aiming high for Oxfordshire, while making sure more people can share in its success.”

Ed Bussey, chief executive, Oxford Science Enterprises, said: “Twenty unicorns by 2035 is absolutely achievable, and it’s right that Equinox is setting itself such a bold and ambitious target. For its part, OSE is now building one new potential billion-pound company every single month; we’ve seen three unicorn outcomes in the last 12 months.

“The challenge is making sure that companies with genuine global potential can access the capital they need not just to start, but to scale, and that they can do that from here rather than having to look elsewhere as they grow.

“At OSE, we give founders the capital, networks, and venture-building expertise they need so their ideas can create value in the world. Our bigger ambition is to build the UK’s first trillion-pound company. Equinox’s new 10-year strategy gives the whole region a shared plan to get there.”

Image: (Pictured l-r) Professor Irene Tracey, Dr Olga Kozlova, chief executive of Equinox and Peter Leek, chief scientific officer of Oxford Quantum Circuits launching Equinox’s 2035 Strategy at the House of Commons – credit: Equinox/Fisher Studios