Exploring plans for a new Health Innovation Hub in Glasgow, which will forge partnerships between academia, industry, clinicians, and the community in order to better tackle healthcare challenges

Academia and specialist commercial leaders are coming together as work gets underway on a new flagship Health Innovation Hub in Glasgow, due for completion in autumn 2025.

Kadans Science Partner has recently started construction work on the precision medicine facility in Govan, in partnership with the University of Glasgow, and supported by Scottish Enterprise.

It follows recent research from Savills which revealed a huge amount of investment in the life science sector, with £5.6bn of venture capital being ploughed into life science-related companies headquartered in the UK – a 120% increase between 2020-2021 and 500% since 2017.

Key cities across the UK, and the rest of the world, are seeing emerging clusters of activity, and it is hoped that such a focus on life sciences in Glasgow will bring huge rewards for wider prosperity and education.

With research links to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the new Health Innovation Hub, designed by Hawkins\Brown, will set the stage for a thriving life sciences cluster in the area.

It will offer laboratory and office accommodation, attract new and innovative businesses to the area, and deliver local benefits to the wider community.

The flexible nature of the design also means tenants can grow and evolve within the building over time, making the Health Innovation Hub their long-term home.

The project is  targeting a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ sustainability rating.

Speaking to Education Property, James Dawson, development manager at Kadans Science Partner, said: “Developments of this kind are increasingly being delivered to drive collaboration between hospitals and world-leading universities to better tackle global healthcare challenges.

“Traditionally located around centres of excellence; they provide  environments where university spin-out businesses can grow and innovate with close collaborations with hospitals offering new advanced treatments.”

The state-of-the-art building, which is being built by Morrison Construction, has been designed to create opportunities for collaboration between commercial entrepreneurs, clinicians, and academics.

Dawson said: “Kadans supports the growth of businesses through flexible design and commercials along with soft support such as our ecosystem services.”

Lead architect, Shirley Wong, of Hawkins\Brown, adds: “The ground-floor space will include a Digital Health Validation Laboratory, operated by the university, which will support the testing and development of new technologies, such as contactless stethoscopes.

“This space will enable clinicians to work with participants to trial new medical technologies and drive improvements in clinical interventions and treatments.

“On the upper levels of the building there are a variety of sizes of workspaces and laboratories. These have been designed to be flexible so that companies can tailor them to their specific needs.

Dawson said: “Collaboration and flexibility has remained at the heart of the design, providing space that fosters innovation and community among the clinician and academic occupiers.”

Externally, the building will have a rust-red façade, representing the area’s heavily industrial past – while windows are spaced at varying intervals, inspired by the DNA Helix.

To reduce energy use, there will be 300sq m of solar panels fitted on the roof and EV chargers will be available in the carpark.