BioversityMA’s Post

I am looking forward to joining the Bisnow Science event tomorrow in 1 Triton Square where we'll explore the growth of the life science research sector within the City. Reflecting on our collaborative efforts at Arup over the past 8 years on this project, I believe we can draw invaluable lessons to address the pressing environmental crisis caused by carbon-intensive buildings losing their relevance within a mere generation or two. As we endeavour to mitigate the impact of the built environment on climate change, the imperative to maximize the reuse of our existing building stock becomes increasingly urgent. The ongoing debate surrounding demolition versus repurposing underscores the crisis we face with buildings designed narrowly for office use. Frank Duffy adopted the term ‘long life, loose fit’, recognising the inherent longevity and flexibility achieved in office design through a ‘loose fit’ approach. 1 Triton Square is a great example of how we can embed longevity in the base design of a building through a long life, loose fit approach, creating an authentic sustainable development. Arup’s 1990’s building for British Land was designed to accommodate financial traders in a high density heavily serviced environment. The spatial generosity of the building has ultimately proved to be one of its greatest assets. Our 2018-2021 refurbishment of the building allowed us to add three storeys and nearly double the floor space, with minimal changes to the space taken by structural and servicing infrastructure. British Land’s bold decision to transform the building into a life-science centre builds on this to exploit the resilience of the structure, and generosity of floor to floor height. Going forward, we need to abandon the stereotype of the office building, and think of how we accommodate work in its broadest sense. Research scientists have realised that the monoculture of the out-of-town science park offers little stimulation, and they prefer the vitality and interaction of the City. We need to design buildings that can accommodate them, but also accommodate the next cycle of change in our working practice. To avoid repeating the mistakes of post-war development we need to abandon singular design typologies and create simple, lean, loose fit buildings for people to work in our Cities. These buildings should form the grey zone of our cities, the backbone that provides stability, flexing and adapting to suit future modes of work, and that can have a 200-year life.....

This London Life Sciences Week (LLSW), we’re joining the global life sciences community to celebrate groundbreaking innovation in the sector. At British Land, we’re proud to support pioneering science and technology companies at our London campuses, empowering them to connect, collaborate and accelerate their growth. Our Head of Innovation Leasing, Amy Hockley, shares the priorities for UK life sciences spaces and how our enhanced lab and campus offerings are providing a platform for these businesses to elevate what they do and get to solutions faster. Watch the video below 👇 #CommitAndCollaborate #LifeSciences #ScienceAndTechnology #LLSW

Womble Bond Dickinson has played a key role in securing planning permission for a transformative life sciences hub in Whitechapel 🔬 This project will create over 4,100 jobs and boost the local economy by £7m annually ⏩ Read more about the project 🖱️ https://ow.ly/BMLf30sIsoi

Big news! 📣📣 The RI Life Science Hub is making available $20M in new grant funding to foster innovation, attract new businesses & support early-stage companies in RI! 🔬Organization Programming Grants: Up to $2.5M for RI orgs to grow and scale programs to support entrepreneurs and early-stage companies. Grants will be available for up to $250,000/yr for 2025 & 2026. 🏢Business Attraction Grants: Up to $10M to attract new life science companies to RI or support significant expansion of existing operations in the state. Grants will range from $500,000 to $5M over 2 years to companies demonstrating a commitment to job creation & major new investments in RI. 💡Early-Stage Company Matching Grants: Up to $7.5M to match private sector investments in RI life science companies in their earliest stages. Grants will range from $50,000 to $500,000 per company over 2 years. Application info and eligibility requirements will be available in November on www.rilifescience.com. To read the full press release, click here: https://conta.cc/3XB0sHY

The Mizzou Division of Research can facilitate collaborative brainstorming events to help your research team identify new lines of inquiry and ideate around funding opportunities — and there are fall openings available! https://lnkd.in/eB79jZEk The Professional Development team offers four types of Team Science events: 🌟 Connections Cafe - A fun two-hour event designed to bring researchers together from across disciplines to meet, find research intersections and build new relationships. 🌟 Inspiration Studio - A fast-paced four-to-eight-hour event for cross-disciplinary researchers to develop new ideas, identify emerging challenges and form interdisciplinary research teams. 🌟 Proposal Acceleration Lab - an intensive one-to-two-day workshop designed to help researchers ideate around a specific funding opportunity. 🌟 Proposal Consultation - one-to-two-hour facilitated meetings to help teams with specific aspects of their proposal development. Activities may include: refining research objectives, developing a logic model/theory of change, identifying potential partners, NSF broader impacts support, etc. Learn more and request an event: https://lnkd.in/eQ5S3FkE

In recognition of National First-Gen Week, the First-Gen Institute invites you to join us for a keynote by Dr. Jason K. Wallace titled "'Part of Your World?': Rethinking Belonging for First-Generation+ Institutional Actors in Higher Education." This keynote will explore the complexities of belonging for first-generation+ students, faculty, and staff in higher education. Drawing from personal narratives and empirical research, Dr. Wallace challenges conventional understandings of what it means to "belong" for first-gen+ students. Register at: https://lnkd.in/gutzeQz3

With North Carolina's diverse strengths in mind, NCInnovation has established four Regional Innovation Networks: East, West, North Central, and South Central. These networks serve as a bridge between universities and the private sector, facilitating the transformation of research discoveries into market-ready solutions that create jobs and boost economic development in every region of the state.   NCI’s regional innovation networks were created to: ☑️ Collaborate with university leaders to inform, support and accelerate promising applied research into addressable market opportunities ☑️ Expand cooperation by linking academia with private sector assets, knowledge, and support services to drive effective development strategies ☑️ Orient grant funding to address “valley of death” challenges early discoveries often face when pursuing commercial scale

This morning at London Life Sciences Week (LLSW) the Minister for Science in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Lord Patrick Vallance, announced our plan to create a world-class innovation hub at the White City Deep Tech Campus, and a new partnership between Imperial College London and Bruntwood SciTech. With a landmark £200m investment, this hub will be a catalyst for deep tech advancements - here’s what to expect: 🌍 Global Connectivity – The new hub bridges Imperial’s research excellence with our extensive network of business growth support and innovation ecosystem across the Golden Triangle and five other major UK cities, positioning the UK as a first-choice destination for deep tech breakthroughs. 🏢 State-of-the-Art Facilities – 200,000 sq ft of custom-designed lab and office space, where early-stage to global science and tech companies can scale, collaborate, and grow alongside Imperial’s renowned academic and research community. 💡 Driving Real-World Impact – This hub is set to fast-track R&D commercialisation, create jobs, and solidify the UK as a global science leader by connecting talent, resources, and world-changing ideas. Read the full press release: https://bit.ly/48Vcotf Peter Kyle Bruntwood Legal & General Greater Manchester Pension Fund Hammersmith & Fulham Council BioIndustry Association (BIA) MedCity

A very enjoyable afternoon at the Bisnow UK Life Sciences summer event yesterday with two very thought-provoking panel discussions (one of which was expertly moderated by my colleague Chris Xitsas!) It was interesting to hear from experts what the (current) key criteria are to create a successful life sciences cluster, including: access to teaching hospitals, academia, research institutions, transport links, affordable housing, power (and backup power) supply. The need for investment into the wider infrastructure for the players in UK life sciences to thrive is clearly a hot topic and it will be interesting to see what the new Labour government can promise (and deliver!) to encourage this. Some other key takeaways from the event: the influence of AI and data centres on the advances of UK life sciences and tech will be huge; it’s no longer “location location location” but more like “infrastructure  infrastructure infrastructure” with a growing interest in areas outside the golden triangle (so don’t ignore the corridors that link Oxford and Cambridge to London); UK life sciences players need space - space to grow into, space to store, space to collaborate; and the main theme of the day was flexibility at all levels, from incubators to developers to landlords to investors, this is a growing and changing industry and what was important to occupiers even two years ago is different today. There is a real need for connection and collaboration within UK life sciences and tech to create thriving ecosystems.

CASA ECR Spring Meeting at Beckmanns Hof In mid-April, the Early Career Researchers (#ECRs) from almost all participating institutes (#Bochum, #Braunschweig, #Berlin, #Hannover) of our cluster #CASA gathered at Beckmanns Hof, Ruhr-Universität Bochum for their ECR Spring Meeting. The event aimed to foster idea exchange across hub boundaries and promote interdisciplinary collaboration within our cluster.   #DidYouKnow: CASA unites four main research areas, our so-called hubs: Hub A “Future Cryptography”, Hub B “Embedded Security”, Hub C “Secure Systems”, and Hub D “Usability”.   #ValueofInterdisciplinarity: Despite the diverse research focuses of the hubs, the interdisciplinary dialogue on daily structures, workflows, and approaches provided a great opportunity to broaden perspectives on the PhD’s and Postdocs’s work. As Felix, PhD, from the Chair for Developer Centered Security and Research Hub D, emphasized: “I highly value the opportunity to discuss different project methodologies and approaches. Learning how projects can be tackled and successfully executed in various ways is always enriching.” Sebastian, PhD, from Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy and Research Hub C, summarized: "Engaging with colleagues, whether across disciplines or within our own hub, enables us to refine our ideas, approach challenges from fresh perspectives, and pave the way for new innovations."   Learn more about the ECR Spring Meeting here: https://lnkd.in/eWqfrwjv   #Bochum