What’s new at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus?

Well if you were at the network meeting on 18 November 2013 you may well know some of the answers but, if you missed it, don't worry because I was there!

Jeanette Walker, Project Director of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, kicked off the evening by providing an overview of the latest developments on the Biomedical Campus and the Great Kneighton Residential Development. It seems as though every last detail has been thought through:

trees which have been planted on the site are all indigenous to the Cambridge area;
as a house owner you have automatic membership to the Zipcar Club; and
residential garages are wider than average to allow for bikes to be wheeled in and out past whatever car you may have parked in your garage!

She then went on to explain that this isn’t just ‘another science park’, the vision is that they are creating a “Healthcare Village” so it will have a village feel about it and people should feel that they are part of a community. Most importantly, however, it will be “patient-centric” with Academia, Business and Clinicians all working and collaborating together for the benefit of patients.

It is now common knowledge that AstraZeneca is establishing itself on the Biomedical Campus. Jeanette was able to share with delegates that their relocation was for two key reasons:

to gain from the Cambridge Community (expertise, knowledge, creativity), and
an opportunity to ‘give back’.

Next was discussion of the Cambridge Forum which will consist of an 800 capacity conference centre, post-graduate training centre, hotel and private hospital. A ‘private hospital’ on the Addenbrooke’s NHS Hospital site? Yes, I didn’t ‘get it’ either so couldn’t wait to ask! The response was swift: “we need to make money to re-invest … the entire Cambridge Forum is to be funded by the private sector.” Okay, that makes sense.

All being well, work on the Forum will start in June 2014 and it will be open for business in the Summer/Autumn of 2016.

Of course with the massive expansion happening on the Biomedical Campus (others know of the location as the “Addenbrooke’s Site”), there’s a need not only for houses but also for schools. So it was good to hear about the University Technical College and the Trumpington Community College.

The University Technical College will be built off Robinson Way and should be completed by end of 2014. It has the capacity to take 670 students (14-19 year olds) and education will focus on Biomedical & Environmental Science & Technology (“BEST” – nice acronym!). The building itself will consist of 3 floors of science with one floor devoted to laboratory space. The students will be at the College 08:30 to 17:00, five days a week which means students will soon get used to standard ‘working’ hours. They’ve worked out that this method will provide the students with one extra year gained in learning time. The hours of learning and the very location of the College lends itself well to students being placed with employers on the Campus which is one of the key objectives.

The Trumpington Community College, opening in 2015, is for 11-16 year olds and will be able to take in 750 students. They have adopted “human scale education” and for schools to meet and learn from each other. They even went to Denmark to look at their schools and discovered that what worked well were the very open learning areas where students could cross paths and readily engage with each other i.e. cross-fertilisation of ideas from different disciplines. The College’s vision is to be an international specialist science college promoting an international approach to science. One way of doing this, is the introduction of IGCSE exams which are qualifications recognised around the globe.

The evening was then rounded off by Dane Comerford describing what happens during the Cambridge Science Festival Fortnight and Nathalie Kingston of Cambridge BioResource talking about their research.

The Cambridge Science Festival consists of about 200 events to encourage public discussion with science, technology and medical research. It regularly attracts a wide audience of ages and backgrounds and welcomes visitors from Cambridge, across the UK and from international destinations. Most of the events are free thanks to the generosity of festival partners and sponsors. There was also a plea for attendees to put themselves forward as sponsors or to get involved in some way. GRS has been involved in the past: it was great fun and fantastic to see so many children enthused by science – I’d recommend it to anyone!

Nathalie then explained how the Cambridge BioResource is a resource of thousands of volunteers, both with and without health problems, who are willing to be approached to participate in research studies investigating the links between genes, the environment, health and disease. It was established in 2005, and now with over 14,000 local volunteers, the BioResouce is expanding with 6 new centres being established around the UK. Again there was a request to get involved, for now though, I feel I’ve ‘done my bit’ – you’ll understand when you read my blog!

There are plans to arrange similar informal networking events in the future as a way of keeping up-to-date with what’s happening on the Campus. It changes almost daily and so it is vital that we keep an eye on this dynamic location and are aware of both the challenges and opportunities as they arise. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the Campus take shape and to welcoming new companies to the Cambridge area.

Author: Greer Deal, Director of Global Regulatory Services (GRS)