Around 222 jobs could be created at a new world-class lab space in the East Midlands. The owners of Charnwood Campus – the former Astra-Zeneca campus on the outskirts of Loughborough – say some £4.6 million of investment will go into bringing unused ‘highly-specialised’ lab space back to life.
The new biochemistry building will provide room for a research organisation to expand into the area and mean facilities can be upgraded in the first phase of an Innovation Centre project which will provide specialised labs – meeting modern regulatory requirements – for a new life sciences cluster.
The total investment of £4.6 million will be provided through Enterprise Zone Retained Rates Funding from the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), in partnership with Charnwood Borough Council.
Gosia Khrais, commercial and marketing director at Charnwood Campus, said: “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.
“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 was the UK’s first Life Sciences Opportunity Zone (LSOZ) and forms part of the Loughborough and Leicester Science and Innovation Enterprise Zone. Tenants include Almac, Kindeva, 3M and Charnwood Molecular.
The site, which covers 70 acres, provides an ecosystem of businesses, leading research institutes, and government organisations.
Andy Reed OBE, co-chair of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, said the plans would support 100 high value jobs within 12 months and a total of 222 within five years.
He said: “This lab space will bring inward investment through the arrival of the first tenant.
“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.”
Charnwood Borough Council leader Coun Jewel Miah said: “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.
“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.”
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