Life Sciences Innovation Hub

Forming part of the Tay Cities Deal, the new Life Sciences Innovation Hub will provide around 60,000 square feet of flexible incubator and grow on space for spin off and spin-out companies from the University’s world leading School of Life Sciences. 

Spanning three floors, the new accommodation is structured across two wings flanking an impressive central atrium which serves as the building’s social hub. Designed for visitors to access the Hub without journeying through laboratory or office space, it also fosters opportunities for chance meetings and potential collaboration as well as providing a flexible event space.

The office/dry lab and laboratory spaces each occupy a dedicated wing and share the same modular design principles, allowing for flexible and scalable usage and accommodating teams ranging from a single user to dozens.  A cluster of laboratories are interlinked and can accommodate chemistry and biology research with support facilities all within one module. Configurable footprints give flexibility to accommodate the tenant's specific needs and growth and are supported by shared central facilities and specialist equipment such as NMR facilities. Co-location with the existing school of life sciences provides access to a range of specialist technology platforms.

The orientation of the wings ensures that daylight and solar gains are optimised, helping to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the building.

Unusually, the facility will be fully equipped with laboratory fit-outs on completion. This ‘science ready’ offering combined with continued access to facilities from the adjacent University of Dundee provides the perfect ecosystem to nurture the start ups as they grow, establishing a true incubator environment.

The building is being developed as an exemplar project which showcases the University’s drive towards their net zero strategy. The Hub features cutting edge ground source heat pump technology, located beneath the building footprint to address the constraints of the dense urban setting, as opposed to the typical deep borehole or shallow systems which require extensive land adjacent to the site. The building fabric will also exceed standards for air tightness and insulation.

Public art will feature in the development including the refurbishment and re-installation of an existing local sculpture, 'The Tall Ships', previously held in storage by the City Council.  Combined with a colonnade which creates a welcoming public space at the building’s front, it creates a strong sense of place and arrival.

The project is forecast to support eight hundred new life sciences jobs and deliver a significant £190million of benefit to the local economy by 2053.