Edinburgh Innovation Hub

The Hub is a £40m flagship development which is part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, with an ambition to create a nationally significant facility to capture, support and grow innovation-led enterprise across Edinburgh and East Lothian. The Innovation Hub is the anchor project of a broader Innovation Park adjacent to the Queen Margaret University campus, expected to be open in 2025.

Focusing on important high growth sectors with specialist needs, including life sciences and technology and food and drink, the Hub will support innovative start-ups and small to medium sized businesses, delivering a specialist service for research and business development. It will become a vibrant new economic innovation cluster featuring serviced and fitted commercial laboratory, office and events space.

In creating the Hub, our diverse mix of sector specific expertise has been harnessed from across the practice.  The Science and Technology team have led the design for a variety of modular laboratories ranging from 136 to 2000 square feet and designed to containment level 2 standards, complete with ancillary services such as benching and dedicated write up areas. To accommodate the unique needs of the laboratory environment, the Hub will have an elevated level of vibration and structural performance. 

In collaboration with our Workplaces and Interiors teams, a fully flexible range of office and meeting spaces will be created to accommodate day to day working, meetings, conferences and events. With the essence of the project being centred around collaborative innovation, spaces which are flexible to a diversity of needs, inspire informal interactions and provide both privacy and creativity will feature.

Our work with the client to develop their BIM strategy has supported them on their journey to BIM level 2. The team is investigating digital twin solutions, to explore opportunities for efficiencies in how the building is run and managed.