In a dark room on Cambridge Science Park, two humanoid robots wearing trainers are walking around. They blink and wave to each other and, if you nudge one, it instinctively moves away from you.

Cambridge Consultants is using these robots to develop physical artificial intelligence (AI), which Tim Ensor, who leads the company’s intelligent services, believes is “on the verge of its own ChatGPT moment”.

“Humans know that an object is permanent, even if it’s moved out of view. We know that some things are squishy and others are hard.

“Physical AI is getting robots to understand that – giving them a kind of common sense,” said Ensor.

Robots are already widely used to perform repetitive tasks in the UK, from picking items in warehouses to assembling cars.

Physical AI would make them more versatile, by carrying out a range of jobs which may struggle to attract human applicants.

Cambridge Consultants was among the first tenants to rent space at the Cambridge Science Park in 1979. The company’s successes include developing the first machine to make round teabags for Tetley, to the technology that kick-started Bluetooth.

Now there are more than 100 companies on the site, many attracting major investment.

Xampla makes plastic alternatives from plants. It creates a solution from proteins found in peas, which is spread onto paper or card to prevent water and oil soaking through.

The company, which chose Cambridge Science Park as its base five years ago, has just landed a contract to line takeaway boxes for Just Eat.

“It means our boxes can be recycled and composted,” said co-founder Dr Marc Rodriguez Garcia, “so we’re contributing to potentially replacing billions of tonnes of single-use plastic”.

FlexEnable expects to break into the smart glasses market this year.

Smart glasses enhance the real world – they can provide subtitles on the lens to translate conversations, or give prompts to help people with dementia.

“Many smart glasses are still really bulky” said Dr Paul Cain. “We’ve developed a flexible plastic lens, as thin as a human hair, which is able to dim and focus the light.

“It would help make smart glasses look like ordinary glasses.”

Cain said the technology could also eventually transform varifocal glasses with a single lens able to focus at any distance.

Owlstone Medical celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Based on Cambridge Science Park from the outset, it has become a world leader in developing breath tests to diagnose diseases.

“When we breathe out, our breath contains thousands of chemicals and some of them are markers for serious disease like cancer or gastrointestinal problems,” said co-founder Billy Boyle.

“The tests can be done by a GP or even at home and they’re non-invasive,” Boyle added.

This year the company will start its next stage of UK lung cancer trials and has just signed a deal with the ARPA-H funding agency in the US, worth up to $49m, to further develop cancer diagnostics.

Jane Hutchins, the director of Cambridge Science Park, said the recent investment in companies makes her believe 2026 will be “a good year”.

“The beauty is that for the first time ever we now have national government, the mayoral authority and local government – three different political parties – all aligned in seeing the importance of growing this phenomenal city,” said Hutchins.

A new masterplan for the park will be submitted this year, creating space for many more businesses on the 150-acre site.

The land was gifted to Trinity College, Cambridge, by Henry VIII, but since opening as a science park in 1970 it has grown “organically” and now requires a redesign to maximise space.

But Hutchins accepts that growth can cause conflict with local communities adding “we as a sector need to be better at telling people about the benefits and jobs it brings – not just for scientists.

“We need people in accounting, marketing, cleaners, landscape gardeners. And it’ll be a place for the public to use,” she said.

Plans to move sewage works to create more housing near to Cambridge Science Park have recently stalled.

Peter Freeman, the chair of Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), told Cambridge City Council in December that he thought science parks in the city might be able to help “pick up” that project.

Hutchins said she was waiting for more detail from the CGC.

The UK government is banking on the science and technology sector to boost the economy.

It means small start-up companies must scale up and profit from their ideas, but a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee identified scaling-up as a problem in the UK which forces talent and revenue to move overseas.

Dame Diane Coyle, an economist and Bennett professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge, agrees but said it was complex for any government to solve.

“You have to get a lot of things in place at the same time – it’s like the Christmas cracker games where you need to roll six silver balls into holes.

“It’s about how companies list on stock markets, how to get investors to fund companies in later stages and how to ensure we have the skilled workforce ready to move into new jobs as those companies expand.

“A lot of that co-ordination is easier at a local level than nationally,” she said.

The government used November’s budget to announce plans to back start-up companies, and while Coyle is “broadly optimistic” that UK science is on a positive trajectory she believes it requires a “mindset that enables quick decision-making and agility” in wider policymaking.

“Why is it so hard to get shops to stay in a place and get public transport to work? You can’t have islands of amazing technology without amenities and public services built around them,” she said.