Another boost for bioscience

The growth of biosciences in the East of England is poised to expand further following major investment at the Babraham Bioincubator in Cambridge. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA), in partnership with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Babraham Bioscience Technologies (BBT), has agreed to contribute £2m towards the construction of a new £7m bioincubator.

The construction of the building, to be called Meditrina after the Roman goddess of medicine, on the Babraham Research Campus will commence in September and will provide accommodation and business support 10-14 companies at any one time in the facilities when it opens in September 2007.

As one of the first "enterprise hubs" in the region, the Babraham Bioincubator has operated at full capacity since 2001 and this now includes its Minerva building which took its first tenant in September 2005. Meditrina will provide 20,500 ft2 of customised laboratory and office space creating 18 units that offer flexible accommodation for start-up and early stage bioventures.

Babraham BioConcepts has been enormously successfully in the last three years. Our "hub" programme is designed to help improve the commercialisation and exploitation of research and development, and also provide businesses with improved linkages to higher education and larger, research-intensive corporate businesses in the same field," said David Marlow, chief executive of EEDA

We are committed to catalysing successful knowledge transfer through a flexible approach to facilities and services provision on terms that reflect the stage of development of ventures locating to the Babraham Research Campus" added David Hardman, chief executive of BBT. "The capital grant will enable BBT to expand its bioincubator offering and we believe that through this sort of partnership with EEDA and others, we can continue to increase the chances that these fledgling biotechnology businesses will flourish."