Make a new discovery by looking to Dundee

WHEN Dundee stopped being the city of the three Js - jute, jam and journalism - and became the City of Discovery, there was a scepticism which was not so nearly apparent when Glasgow sought to reinvent itself as Miles Better. However, while Glasgow's campaign is fast becoming a distant memory, Dundee's is increasingly relevant with every passing day.

To the outside observer, Dundee's transformation seemed dependent on the RRS Discovery - the ship which first took Captain Robert Scott to Antarctica, but which was physically difficult to get to because of a dual carriageway - and a waterfront development that appeared to be little more than a supermarket with an adjacent petrol station. Not now.

The Dundee known to many Scots is that of a comedic impersonation by one its best-known football journalists, Dick Donnelly, who would jokingly welcome radio listeners to "dull, dreich Dens Park". And there goes one myth already: of all Scotland's cities, Dundee is the sunniest.

The facts no longer fit the stereotype. Dundee's biotechnology sector is the fastest-growing in the UK. The city is at the forefront of cancer research, and scientists at Dundee University are credited with discovering the cancer-related gene p53, now the most researched gene in the world.

Dundee has more students per head of population than just about anywhere in the country. There is more parkland per head of population than anywhere else in the UK. It is a city of world- ranked scientists, new technology, an emerging cultural quarter and a commitment to stunning new architecture.

If there is one symbol of Dundee's renaissance, it is yesterday's official opening of the Overgate shopping mall. Cleverly embracing what is locally known as the City Churches, the mall's architecture has set a standard of excellence. The fact it will prove a magnet for shoppers from far beyond the city's boundaries makes it a potent vehicle for economic regeneration. And if more proof were needed of its significance, the only other time its developers built a shopping mall in the UK, they bequeathed the nation the biggest one in Europe - the Bluewater complex in Kent.

According to the business growth agency Scottish Enterprise Tayside, whose hard cash and expertise has pump-primed many of the physical manifestations of Dundee's transformation, none of it would have been possible without a tangible sense of collaboration between the city's stakeholders - such as the loca authority, locally based companies and community groups. The formal face of the collaborative spirit is the Dundee Partnership, coordinated by by Steven Carter. "The fact the partners have got together and have been prepared to work together to lay the foundations is why we are where we are," he says.

'One of my favourite projects has been the Dundee Contemporary Arts centre," he continues. "It wouldn't have happened without the partnership: the council paying for the building, one of the city's two universities becoming involved and Scottish Enterprise Tayside providing funding and business planning. The centre was awarded the largest - at the time - Scottish Arts Council lottery grant.

"When you come to Dundee, the minute you cross the boundary we are trying to create the ethos of quality. So we are making all the arrival corridors - by car, train, ship or air - attractive in their own right. The moment you arrive you will get a sense of a place with a bit of quality to it."

Such belief in the future is being shared by the private sector. A #3 million home is being built by the city council for a dedicated cancer research centre, Cyclacel. At the Dundee plant of NCR, which is said to have manufactured more than 30% of the world's ATMs, a #20m research and development extension is being built and will open next year. The new centre will not only provide security for the 1700 staff, it should also capture a sizeable chunk of NCR's annual worldwide research and development budget of approximately $350m.

Both Nick Day, director of competitive locations at Scottish Enterprise Tayside, and Councillor Merv Rolfe, convener of economic development at Dundee City Council, are agreed that the RRS Discovery, moored at the waterfront as part of an award-winning visitor centre, has more than played its part. "The City of Discovery campaign was spawned by RRS Discovery," says Day. "It says everything about Dundee - discover new technology, discover a high quality of life, discover culture and tourism."

Rolfe continues: "There has been a general upward spiral over the past 15 or so years, each building block that's gone in place demanding the next one be built above it. We had the ship coming back and we then had the waterfront - some of it good, some of it not so good. Let's be honest about that, although it is easy to forget the waterfront had been a disused railway yard, not a beautiful promenade or anything like that.

"At the same time Dundee University was growing massively, a new university, Abertay, was founded and began to grow, and the private sector was doing business as well at places such as NCR. It is a case of success breeding success."

Day adds: "There was a realisation that Dundee had weaknesses as a regional shopping centre and so a lot of work was done on improving the environment, much in partnership with the private sector. We feel the Overgate development is the fulfilment of hard work and a recognition that there are opportunities for investment in the city."

One company prospering to the extent that it expects a leap in turnover from #5m last year to #12m this year is Texol Technical Solutions, which was set up in September two years ago. "NCR is our biggest customer," says sales and marketing director Willie Macaulay, "but we are beginning to target the oil, electronics and food industries, so our location between Aberdeen and Glasgow is proving all the more valuable. Dundee may have been in decline in the past, but I can definitely see good prospects now."

This is a theme picked up by Day: "In the past, people may not have seen Dundee as a tourist destination, but what we have now is effectively a whole-day experience. There are a lot of people who don't realise the transformation. Dundee's image has completely changed.

"You can go to the contemporary arts centre or an award-winning industrial museum - the Verdant Works, a working jute mill - or enjoy high-quality shopping. In July we have a science centre opening, which celebrates the life sciences. And to underline the partnership aspect to all the developments in the city, the Science Centre, which will be called Sensation, has two boards, one a senior board, the other a junior board consisting of children aged around 10 years old, who are advising on how interesting the exhibits are. These kids have helped shape what the centre will be like."

Rolfe has been involved with the regeneration of Dundee since long before RRS Discovery returned to the River Tay: "What has been the biggest thrill is the confidence in the city, the ability for people to think laterally about new ideas and have the confidence to share them and then carry them out.

"These used to be pipe dreams for Dundee over the past 10, 20, 30 years - perhaps even longer. Some were parachuted in from nowhere, like manna from heaven. But it is all about people having the confidence to say, 'Wouldn't it be great if ', and others saying, 'That's a good idea, let's go for it'. And as others see what might at first appear to be wacky ideas given a chance and working, so they have the confidence to come up with their own ideas. That is the proof of a genuine partnership at work."

Dundee Contemporary Arts is a ringing endorsement of the partnership approach, with university investment at the forefront of many of its production facilities, including a visual research centre incorporating the last word in digital editing, printmaking and 3-D modelling. "It feels as if people have come home," says Andrew Nairne, DCA director. "A year after it has opened, people are still coming up to us and saying how amazing it is. I think there is a strong sense of pride among the people of Dundee for having created this. Even I was amazed at when I finally saw the scale and quality.

"One of the great things - and I have felt this when I have gone around Britain - is that already the exhibition space is considered one of the best around. We had an exhibition of W Eugene Smith, one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century, next to an exhibition of Frank Gehry's world-class architectural work. Both of them have a social conscience, so we had a big slogan up - Change the World - and to have 17,000 people come to the exhibitions felt like a huge achievement for Dundee to pull off. The last time W Eugene Smith's work was exhibited was in 1978, and that was in London. So it was pretty special."

NAIRNE adds: "The DCA is an important component of quite a few things going on to keep young people in the city and to attract new people from outside to move here. All these eminent scientists moving to the city need something to do - they have to be assured of a high quality of life.

"If you want people to live in Dundee, if you want people to invest in Dundee, then you have to make sure Dundee has attractions such as the DCA. The DCA isn't just a small arts centre - it is potentially world-class."

The final word? Perhaps the latest book by business guru and philosopher Charles Handy. In The New Alchemists, Handy writes: "We need more Dundees if our societies are going to be the places of 'cultivation' which Adam Smith, the first high priest of market economy, said should be our real aim in society. Dundee's mix of art and science means it is well poised to become a model for the 21st century city."

Copyright 2000
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