GROWTH
CGI of the proposed
Phase 2 buildings at
Cambridge Biomedical
Campus, to adjoin Abcam
plc’s new 25,000 sq ft
global headquarters
transaction, the team has helped
secure over £40 million of private
sector investment in infrastructure
and an additional £500 million of
real estate investment.
Andrew Blevins, MD of Liberty
Property Trust, commented: “Creative
Places’ specialist knowledge of the life
sciences R&D sector, and in particular
the Cambridge cluster, help us make
compelling business/science led cases
for organisations to locate to the Campus
and benefit from the many collaborations
that are on offer there.”
Cambridge
Biomedical Campus
Since planning permission was secured
in 2009, development has included a new
facility for the Medical Research Council’s
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, a
new Papworth Hospital, a new global
headquarters for AstraZeneca (AZ),
and a biomedical research facility for
Cambridge University – securing the
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entire phase 1 biomedical R&D
allocation of 169,000m 2 (1.8 million sq ft).
Addenbrooke’s Hospital has realised its
objectives, upgrading major infrastructure
to serve growing patient demands and
creating opportunity to expand, having
significantly advanced research in the city,
bringing further opportunity for globally
significant research collaboration. The
landowners realised income for land
beyond the levels they needed, and the
developers enjoyed good financial return.
“The Campus is small in the sense
that you will bump into people as you
go about your business, yet grand in the
sense of the scale and quality of the
research. The informal, day-to-day
contact between people on site has played
a key role in the translation of discoveries
into effective treatment of previously
untreatable conditions,” said Malcolm
Lowe-Lauri, Executive Director,
Cambridge University Health Partners.
To share costs, the infrastructure had
to be delivered in conjunction with a large
swathe of residential development
nearby. This positive impact on the local
community extends to the addition of
a new Deakin Centre to provide training
for Health, Social Care, and Childcare
students, and a University Technical
College to focus on educating and training
14-19 year olds for careers in science
and technology.
Ground breaking R&D
No scheme in the UK has delivered so
much integrated industry R&D space
into a hospital environment. Even when
one looks internationally it is hard to
find projects delivering at this level.
In some cases, researchers are
involved in the development of
bespoke technologies. For example,
with colleagues from GE Healthcare,
scientists at Cancer Research UK’s
Cambridge Institute led by Professor
Kevin Brindle developed nuclear spin
hyperpolarization, an imaging technique
to overcome the limitation of Magnetic