UK Biobank and an accompanying hub for scaling businesses looking to collaborate with the large-scale biomedical database and research resource company.
Construction of a £60m lab and innovation hub at Manchester Science Park is celebrating an important milestone after ‘topping out’.
Greenheys is the new headquarters of UK Biobank and an accompanying hub for scaling businesses looking to collaborate with the large-scale biomedical database and research resource company.
The latest milestone marks a significant step forward for UK Biobank and Bruntwood SciTech – the joint venture between Bruntwood, L&G and Greater Manchester Pension Fund.
The new hub will provide specialist lab and workspace in Manchester’s knowledge quarter, within Europe’s largest clinical academic campus, and immediately neighbouring The University of Manchester.
Led by construction firm Willmott Dixon, Greenheys will provide 131,000 sq ft of workspace across six floors, with spaces ranging from 2,500 sq ft bespoke suites to 22,000 sq ft whole floorplates, including specialist CL2 labs. Having reached this important milestone, the project is due to complete in summer 2026.
L-R Jessica Boname, UKRI, Dr Kath Mackay, Bruntwood SciTech, Michael Poole-Sutherland, Willmott Dixon, John Busby, UK Biobank
To mark the occasion, a ‘topping out’ ceremony was held by Bruntwood SciTech and Willmott Dixon, with senior leadership from Bruntwood SciTech’s partners Manchester City Council, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University all in attendance, alongside representatives from UK Biobank and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
UK Biobank is the world’s most comprehensive source of biomedical data available for health research in the public interest. Its laboratory space will boast a robotic freezer capable of storing and retrieving up to 20m biological samples four times faster than current standards, revolutionising the pace of scientific discovery.
It says the relocation will dramatically increase the speed at which UK Biobank can supply samples to researchers, allow for the storage of millions more samples as UK Biobank expands, and be more environmentally efficient.
Businesses based at the Park will have the opportunity to collaborate with The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and MFT through Bruntwood SciTech’s partnerships. This includes direct access to R&D and funding support, highly skilled talent, and clinical trial opportunities.
As such, the space is suitable for those operating in life sciences, including diagnostics, genomics, BioTech and precision medicine, as well as energy, advanced materials, food science, chemistry and electronics.
“This important milestone at Greenheys brings us one step closer to supporting even more businesses within the scientific community to collaborate, scale and succeed,” said Dr Kath Mackay, chief scientific officer for Bruntwood SciTech.
“Specialist and flexible office and lab spaces are crucial to helping our nation’s innovation economy to grow, but only if they also have access to connect and partner with other like-minded businesses and leading academic institutions.
“Manchester Science Park offers companies the chance to do just that, and we are looking forward to welcoming them into the ecosystem we have created here, in the same hub as UK Biobank.”
Professor Sir Rory Collins, principal investigator and chief executive of UK Biobank, said: “This ‘topping out’ ceremony marks an exciting step in UK Biobank joining Manchester’s thriving life sciences community.
“Our move will allow us to grow existing links with the University of Manchester, which began more than 20 years ago, and forge new links with organisations spanning academia and the commercial sector.
“This new facility will accelerate the public health discoveries UK Biobank is already enabling, by allowing us to deliver the generously donated biological samples and health data from our half a million participants even faster to scientists.
“It is thanks to UKRI’s funding that we can build this new headquarters, working with Bruntwood SciTech and Willmott Dixon to create one of the first net zero lab spaces in the UK.”