It seems to have been a long time in the development, but the Edinburgh BioQuarter is coming closer to opening. Home to the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM), the quarter is on schedule to open towards the end of this year. Work on the £60 million building began in December 2008 and, when complete, it will provide a facility for 650 researchers looking at how to apply stem cell research to conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and heart disease.
In early 2012, the next phase – known as Nine, The BioQuarter – will open, offering 10,000 square metres of office and lab space dedicated to startups and established life science companies. And today, a further step has been taken with the appointment of the Scottish architect, Allan Murray, to lead an ambitious project to expand the development. It will involve a public consultation and develop a master plan to expand the £600 million project. Its aim will be to position Edinburgh as one of the world’s top ten hubs for life sciences research and development.
“This is another exciting milestone in the development of Edinburgh BioQuarter," said David Leven, business infrastructure team leader at Scottish Enterprise. "It is vital that Scotland has a business environment that supports the forecast growth of our life sciences sector and can compete over the long term with other international locations for investment.
“This next phase will create further opportunity for world-leading clinical, academic and commercial expertise to be concentrated at the BioQuarter and will further enhance its reputation as a global centre of excellence for life sciences.”
Edinburgh already has one of the largest concentrations of life scientists in the world. The city has a long-established reputation in the field, dating back to Professor Sir Ian Wilmut’s work in creating Dolly the sheep. Last month, Professor Wilmut spoke of the "huge potential" of the new scientific research base being created in the capital.
The professor, who chairs the SCRM, said that its location was “ideal as we'll be next to a research hospital with a clinical trials unit, the University of Edinburgh's teaching and research facilities, basic research scientists and biotechnology companies. I think that's a unique combination with huge potential for translational research but also the use of stem cells in drug discovery and development work. It will be a unique resource in the UK.”
There are several factors which will make this research centre unique. It will bring together an internationally renowned university and its medical school, an 870-bed hospital with a world-class clinical trials centre, and a commercial research campus that will house some of the world’s leading biotech companies.
It will therefore be able to offer a "bench to bedside" approach to biotech research and development. That should help to act as a magnet to attract and retain world-leading academics, researchers, clinicians and global companies to locate in Scotland. At the same time, the plan is to create a hub where academia, industry and clinicians can work together so that Scotland’s academic and research strengths in life sciences can be more effectively commercialised, leading to more spin-outs and more start-up businesses.
The appointment of Allan Murray Architects follows the successful resolution of a number of complex property transactions last year between public and private sector organisations which cleared the path for this development and the wider regeneration of south-east Edinburgh. This next phase of the BioQuarter project will include 100,000 square metres of space suitable for development, next to a new private hospital, care home and care village at Edmonstone.
“We’re delighted to be leading the masterplanning exercise for the expansion of the Edinburgh BioQuarter project," said Allan Murray, chief executive of Allan Murray Architects. "The project team, led by ourselves and supported by GVA [Gross Value Added], Colin Buchanan and WSP brings over 15 years of architectural experience to help make this project a world-leading success reaping substantial economic benefits for the Scottish economy.”
In the next ten years, the BioQuarter is expected to generate £250 million of private sector investment in the commercial research campus by 2022 and create 6,500 new high-value jobs for Scotland. The project team believes it will create a facility unmatched in scale in the UK, which should help Scotland join the elite club of top worldwide locations for life science investment, along with Kobe in Japan, Novum Biocity in Stockholm and Mission Bay in San Francisco.
To date, the BioQuarter has engaged a team of experienced life science business professionals and is preparing its first companies for deals with investors, as well as negotiating the first major collaborative agreements with international bio-pharmaceutical companies. The £600 million project is a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, the University of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian and the world’s leading life science property specialist, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
The BioQuarter team has produced this video to show what the SCRM will look like. The two people who conduct the tour and explain what facilities will be available are Mark Turner of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Janet Downey of Roslin Cells Limited.
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