Press Release
New Bioincubation Facilities on the Babraham Research Campus set to open in September 2007
Meditrina, BBT’s latest Bioincubator building on the Babraham Research Campus, will be completed and handed over on 24th August 2007, nearly a month ahead of schedule. The new facility provides purpose built office and laboratory accommodation; fully fitted units of 1,000 sq ft ready for immediate occupancy by young and growing bioscience companies. BBT commissioned this building to meet the incubation demands on the Campus and construction commenced on site in September 2006.
Delighted that the new bioincubator will be completed to a high quality finish ahead of time, David Hardman, CEO of BBT said, “This means that we can offer a further 20,000 sq ft of purpose built incubation space to early stage bioventures looking to develop biomedical products and services in the region. We are pleased that just over half of the building has already been leased to tenants either growing out of our existing facilities or relocating to the Babraham Research Campus, adding to the 26 companies currently residing in our other buildings. Indeed expressions of interest in the remaining space could exceed that available in Meditrina.”
Interest in the Babraham Research Campus has been such that, even with the new buildings, the facilities have been fully subscribed since 2001, a reflection of the exceptional facilities available and flexible, competitive terms. Arakis, Procognia and Biowisdom are some of the campus’ notable alumni.
Meditrina, named after the Roman goddess of medicine, was part-funded by a capital grant of £2 million from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) in partnership with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) enabling the construction of this state-of-the-art £7million Bioincubator.
Mark Aspinall, Head of Innovation at EEDA, said: "The Meditrina building will help to boost the region’s exploitation of the bioscience sector and in turn help to grow the regional economy further. It will increase the support for early stage bioventures wanting to establish themselves in the East of England and will bring international recognition and investment to the region.”
As the date for Practical Completion approaches Chris Murphy, Managing Director, of Marriott, the constructors, said that the success of the project was a result of the excellent relationship established with all members of the team, Client, Contractor, Designers and Supply Chain partners working together to achieve a common goal.
Even before Meditrina is handed over, BBT is contemplating the business case for the next building. “We hope to start construction of Maia (appropriately named for the rapidly developing Babraham Research Campus after the Roman goddess of growth) during 2008; a building that would offer a mix of incubation and grow-on space.”
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