Harwell secures £300m for next phase of development

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus has secured £300m of financing to help it expand and build new laboratory, advanced manufacturing, and office space.

The finance facility was secured by the campus public-private partnership – a joint venture between Brookfield, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Over the next two years, Harwell will use the additional funding secured to build 440,000 sq ft of new laboratory and R&D buildings across the campus.

This will include Tech Foundry, 220,000 sq ft of advanced manufacturing space, and the Linear Accelerator Building (L^B), a laboratory building for starting and scaling science organisations, alongside a number of further developments across the campus.

Tim Bestwick, chair of the Harwell Campus Joint Venture and chief technology officer at UKAEA, said: “This £300m finance facility will allow Harwell to continue to expand and offer exciting science, tech and innovation organisations the high-quality accommodation they need to thrive and grow.

“We’re delighted with how Harwell Campus has been evolving – based on world-leading science and innovation capabilities and now a major hub for innovation alongside world-leading research.

“Harwell is a great example of a highly successful public-private partnership, and we look forward to continuing to build this very special place.”

The investment and development facility has been provided by a consortium comprising Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Axa.

Jim Stretton, chief financial officer & chief operating officer at Harwell Campus, said: “The new finance facility will be transformative for the campus. There is a chronic shortage of high calibre lab and R&D space across Oxfordshire which is holding incredible companies back.

“The new developments this facility will fund will accelerate our ability to effectively support our thriving innovation ecosystem.”

George Freeman MP, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, said: “This major private sector investment in Harwell Campus – one of the UK’s leading clusters of scientists and companies in space and life science – is a sign of how our £20 billion per year public R&D is catalysing major co-investment in clusters up and down the country. From Glasgow Satellite City to Teesside Hydrogen. And from Norwich AgriTech to the Solent MarineTech cluster and South Wales Semiconductors.

A new generation of growth infrastructure funds like Brookfield & Northern Gritstone are now providing major growth capital, helping to accelerate our high growth clusters to drive levelling up and grow our Innovation Economy.”

The announcement follows a number of recent developments at the campus, including the ground-breaking in April on Moderna’s Innovation and Technology Centre, a facility for research, development and manufacturing of mRNA vaccines for respiratory conditions and diseases, and in May, the recently constructed National Satellite Test Facility signed its inaugural contract with Airbus Defence and Space UK.

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