Works starts on £23m medical research facility
Work has started on a new £23m research facility at The University of Nottingham that will bring together experts in serious diseases including cancer, cardiovascular, liver, bone and respiratory conditions to encourage collaboration and drive new breakthroughs in treatment and diagnosis.
The new Centre for Biomolecular Sciences Extension, due to open in late 2019, will house around 350 academics, researchers and PhD students across five floors of laboratories and research space and bring together experts currently located at six separate University of Nottingham sites.
Alex Norris, MP for Nottingham North will visit University Park Campus to officially launch the work on the new building at a groundbreaking ceremony today (4 April) at 2pm.
The building will also house the newly-created Centre for Cancer Sciences (CCS), which will take a pioneering approach to create a new centre of excellence in the detection and treatment of cancer, while training a new generation of cancer researchers to tackle the disease head on.
A new BSc/MSc in Cancer Sciences will be managed from the building and students in their third and fourth years will be developing research skills and working on their own research projects in the new laboratories alongside established research staff.
David Bates, Professor of Oncology and Co-Director of Research for the School of Medicine, said: “Co-locating researchers in one purpose-built building will facilitate interactions and enable people to excel by working together and sharing expertise and ideas. This approach will foster long-term success and sustainability, and move us closer to the creation of a world-class centre of excellence.”
Chris Denning, Professor of Stem Cell Biology and lead of Nottingham’s Research Priority Area in Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cells, said: “This is an extremely exciting opportunity and will overcome geographical boundaries to create a step-change in our ability to work together. Close collaboration is the central ethos of this co-localisation and is certainly the most effective way to get things done — by this I mean accelerate translation of basic science to new treatments for disease.”
The building itself will be designed and constructed to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ accreditation with sustainable features including photovoltaic panels.
Two bridge links will connect the building at third-floor level to the existing adjacent Boots Science Building and Centre for Biomolecular Sciences creating a specialist Biomolecular Science hub.
Andy Sewards, managing director for GF Tomlinson, the Midlands-based firm building the new centre, said: “We’re proud to be working with the University of Nottingham again to deliver another flagship project to improve specialist research facilities. We recently delivered the Advanced Manufacturing Building on the university’s Jubilee Campus and this development builds on our reputation for delivering high quality, sustainable buildings within the higher education sector.”
