Loughborough's Charnwood Campus has highly-specialised lab space that is currently unused.
More than 200 jobs will be created through a £4.6m investment in revamping currently unused laboratory space at Charnwood Campus. It will be reactivated to create a world-class biochemistry building.
The project will enable a research organisation to expand into the LLEP area. It will allow existing facilities to be upgraded as part of the first phase of an Innovation Centre project which will provide specialised laboratories - which meet modern regulatory requirements - for Leicester and Leicestershire’s life sciences cluster.
The total investment of £4.6m will be provided through Enterprise Zone Retained Rates Funding from the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), in partnership with Charnwood Borough Council.
"This lab space will bring inward investment through the arrival of the first tenant," said LLEP co-chair, Andy Reed OBE. "But it will also support the development and growth of businesses in the pharmaceutical, bio-tech, and med-tech sectors by offering research, development, and small batch manufacturing capacity here in Leicestershire."
The project will:
Make available 9,417m² of highly specialised bio-chemistry laboratory and office space
Create 100 high value jobs within 12 months - and a total of 222 within five years
Introduce a further 1,110 jobs in the supply chain
Create 50 parking spaces with electric car charging points.
"This project is another example of the opportunity we have to bring significant inward investment to Charnwood through making effective use of world-class life sciences infrastructure," said Cllr Jewel Miah, Leader of Charnwood Borough Council.
"Not only will this create cutting-edge lab space, it will also create hundreds of quality jobs and strengthen the supply chain for our local economy."
Charnwood Campus was the UK’s first Life Sciences Opportunity Zone (LSOZ) and forms part of the Loughborough and Leicester Science and Innovation Enterprise Zone.
Located on the former AstraZeneca campus on the outskirts of Loughborough, it provides an ecosystem of businesses, leading research institutes, and government organisations.
Its purpose is to grow med-tech and biopharma businesses by simplifying and accelerating the pathway from concept to commercialisation.
"This investment will help accelerate our ambition to become a meaningful life sciences asset in the region, attracting inward investment, and providing employment directly on the site and within our local supply chain," said Gosia Khrais, Commercial and Marketing Director at Charnwood Campus.
"The project will also allow us to bring forward some of the other schemes that we have been working on in the background.
"None of this could have happened without really successful partnerships with our local and regional authorities."
Charnwood Campus covers 70 acres of development land, with laboratories and production plants designed for drug discovery and development.
