Final call by Scottish Enterprise for Edinburgh BioQuarter Bidders Day.
Investors event for £1billion mixed-use development opportunity attracts worldwide interest.
One of the largest development opportunities in Europe, Edinburgh BioQuarter’s vision for a £1billion GDV mixed-use development to create a world-leading Health Innovation District, will move a step closer when interested parties gather online for Bidders Day on 1st September.
The procurement process to find a private sector partner launched in June with a prior information notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). So far, almost 200 delegates representing investment, construction, housing and management organisations have signed up for the virtual event. Registration closes at noon on 31st August.
The vision is a £1 billion transformation to create an expanded vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood, centred around health-innovation, ultimately supporting a community of more than 20,000 people. It will include commercial labs and offices as well as residential housing, cafes, bars, restaurants, hotel, retail and leisure. The capacity of the full available 61 acres of undeveloped land is around 4 million square feet of development floor area, with a mix of building heights.
BioQuarter is a partnership between City of Edinburgh Council, NHS Lothian, the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Enterprise. The 167-acre site lies just three miles south of Edinburgh city centre and currently 8,000 people work and study within its boundary. Today, it comprises many award-winning life sciences businesses based at NINE, its Innovation Centre, the globally renowned Edinburgh Medical School, many of the University of Edinburgh’s world-leading research institutes and the 900-bed Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Already £520m is invested in buildings, infrastructure, and specialist equipment.
Linda Hanna, Managing Director of Economic Development at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Life sciences has never had a greater focus, and it’s never been more clear that it is the one area of the economy on which all our lives depend.
“Governments, private investors and academic institutions are throwing all they can at finding the cures, vaccines and treatments to beat the pandemic.
“Edinburgh BioQuarter is one of Scottish Enterprise’s most significant long-term investments and has played a pivotal role in cultivating world-leading medical research and life sciences innovation that is improving people’s lives around the world.
“As we move to the next phase of the project, it presents a hugely exciting prospect for potential partners.
“Not only will investors be contributing to work which is literally saving and improving lives, they will be building a community and helping improve the life chances for upcoming and future generations on the fringe of one of Europe’s most vibrant cities.”
Edinburgh BioQuarter Interim Programme director Anna Stamp said: “Our expansion plans for BioQuarter represent one of Europe’s largest development opportunities currently, and our search for the right partner to realise our vision is attracting worldwide interest. The crucial role of health innovation through life sciences and data driven discovery in safeguarding communities and recharging economies has come sharply into focus this year. The global life sciences sector has a market value of £868 billion with anticipated annual growth of 8 to 10 percent.
“BioQuarter is already a growing ecosystem of opportunity, a fusion of facilities and talent in commercial, academic and clinical research, bioinformatics and data-driven innovation. In finding the right partner to share our ambition for a sustainable community with health and wellbeing at its core, we will deliver the environment to accelerate solutions to global health challenges, and will create a community that people want to be part of, where they can work, live, learn and discover.”
During the PIN process, interested parties may submit questions via the secure Q&A facility on Public Contracts Scotland www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
The Edinburgh BioQuarter website https://edinburghbioquarter.com/opportunity/ will be regularly kept up to date with all publicly available information on the procurement opportunity.
Contact Information
Donna Watson
Notes to editors
For further information contact Maggie Wright on 07801 710360 email Maggie.wright@mwa.co
Or Kirsten Paul, 07814 487 663, kirsten@clarkcommunications.co.uk
Notes to Editors
- A PIN, or Prior Information Notice, is a notice published in the OJEU which sets out a contracting authority's purchasing intentions. It does not oblige the contracting authority to proceed with a procurement process, but informs the market that they should expect a procurement to be commenced within the next 12 months.
- OJEUstands for the Official Journal of the European Union (previously called OJEC - the Official Journal of the European Community). This is the publication in which all tenders from the public sector which are valued above a certain financial threshold according to EU legislation, must be published
- BioQuarter is home to some of Scotland’s leading life sciences companies based at NINE, its Life Sciences Innovation Centre. Notable companies based at the site include GSK, Aquila BioMedical (a Concept Life Sciences company), LifeArc, RoslinCT, Fios Genomics and CALCIVIS. More details and case studies can be found at edinburghbioquarter.com
- Over the last two decades, Edinburgh BioQuarter has played a pivotal role in Scotland’s successes in the life sciences sector, which has a turnover in excess of £6.5bn and employs over 41,000 people.
- Paul Lawrence is the Executive Director of Place at City of Edinburgh Council and the nominated Chairperson for the Edinburgh BioQuarter Strategy Board. This role rotates between its four partners.
o Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's national economic development agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. To deliver a significant, lasting effect on the Scottish economy, we work with partners in the public and private sectors to find and exploit the best opportunities.
o NHS Lothian provides a range of primary, community and acute hospital based healthcare for the populations of Edinburgh, East Lothian Midlothian and West Lothian. As s a national centre of expertise, specific specialties are also provided to people in neighbouring Fife and the Borders and right across Scotland. Innovation and continuous quality improvement in patient treatment, care and safety is among the organisation’s core objectives. NHS Lothian has an annual budget of 1.6 billion and employs around 26,000 staff.
o The University of Edinburgh is a global university, rooted in Scotland. We are internationally recognised for our research, development and innovation and we have provided world-class teaching to our students for more than 425 years. We are the largest university in Scotland, with more than 43,000 students and nearly 16,000 staff. We are a founding member of the UK’s Russell Group of leading research universities and a member of the League of European Research Universities.
o City of Edinburgh Council www.edinburgh.gov.uk