Edinburgh Research Centre, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh - geograph

Edinburgh BioQuarter is one of the UK’s leading health innovation locations. It boasts an established and growing ecosystem where leaders in healthcare, academia, economic development and local government work together to deliver a shared vision for its development. It is a key initiative in the development of Scotland's life sciences industry, which employs more than 39,000 people in over 750 organisations. A community of 8,000 people currently work and study within the boundary of BioQuarter, located on the south side of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Scotland’s capital city. It is approximately three miles from the city centre and easily accessible by public transport, with Edinburgh International Airport a 20-minute journey by car, depending on traffic. This 160-acre site is a melting pot of talent which includes award-winning health innovation businesses, the globally renowned

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...

, 900-bed

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...

, and new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences. The site is also home t
NINE - Life Sciences Innovation Centre
and many of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

’s world-leading medical research institutes, including th
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
an
Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic

Partnership and Economic Impact

BioQuarter is a partnership with four of Scotland’s most prominent organisations - the City of Edinburgh Council,

NHS Lothian NHS Lothian is one of the 14 regions of NHS Scotland. It provides healthcare services in the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian areas. Its headquarters are at Waverley Gate, Edinburgh Services It is responsible for the ...

Scottish Enterprise Scottish Enterprise is a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, enterprise, innovation and investment in business. The body covers the eastern and central parts of Scotland whilst similar ...

and the

- and together they work towards delivering a shared vision for the development of the location as a £1billion Health

Innovation District Innovation districts are urban geographies of innovation where R&D strong institutions, companies, and other private actors develop integrated strategies and solutions to develop thriving innovation ecosystems–areas that attract entrepreneurs, st ...

. Over the past three decades there has been over £600m investment in capital developments. BioQuarter has generated an estimated £2.72 billion in

gross value added In economics, gross value added (GVA) is the measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy. "Gross value added is the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption; it is a measure o ...

from its research, clinical and commercial activities, and a further £320 million from its development. On-going investments by the

and

in academic and clinical facilities make it one of the most comprehensive health innovation locations in the UK.

History

In 1997, the Scottish Government obtained planning permission for land in the

Little France Little France is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the A7, approximately south of the city centre. The area falls within the parish of Liberton in the south-east of the city. It acquired its name from members of the ent ...

area of Edinburgh for a new

and it was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract in 1998. This allowed the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School to relocate from their historic sites in Edinburgh city centre. Development commenced immediately and in 2002

opened the new

, a major acute

teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...

. At the same time the University of Edinburgh completed its first phase of relocation of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine with the move of medical teaching and research to the adjacent Chancellor’s Building. In 2004

, Scotland’s economic development agency, had acquired the surrounding land with a view to establishing one of Europe’s leading locations for life sciences companies. In 2007, following completion of a series of land deals which cleared a 55-acre site for development adjacent to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, launched the creation of Edinburgh BioQuarter. This was followed in 2006 b
The Queens Medical Research Institute
(QMRI), with the aim of addressing major disease challenges in Cardiovascular Science, Inflammation Research,

Regenerative Medicine Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by st ...

and Reproductive Health and the

Centre for Regenerative Medicine The Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a stem cell research centre at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, dedicated to the study and development of new regenerative treatments for human diseases. The centre forms part of the univers ...

, officially opened by the Princess Royal, dedicated to the study and development of new regenerative treatments for human diseases and stem cell research to find new therapies for conditions including multiple sclerosis and

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

and

liver disease Liver disease, or hepatic disease, is any of many diseases of the liver. If long-lasting it is termed chronic liver disease. Although the diseases differ in detail, liver diseases often have features in common. Signs and symptoms Some of the si ...

. The QMRI also houses part of th
Edinburgh Imaging Facility
In August 2010, British author J.K Rowling endowed research at BioQuarter with a £10 million gift to create th
Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic
in memory of her mother who died in 1990 from complications related to multiple sclerosis. The Clinic was officially opened in October 2013. The first commercial facility on BioQuarter
NINE - Life Sciences Innovation Centre
was established in 2012 to house burgeoning spinouts and startup life sciences companies; this was joined in 2016 by commercial modular facilities in the form of BioCube 1 and BioCube 2.

Health Innovation District and Planned Developments

By 2035, BioQuarter will be a vibrant Health Innovation District - a new mixed use, urban neighbourhood of Edinburgh, supporting a community of more than 20,000 people and centred on world-leading health innovators and businesses. The £1billion (GDV) development will unlock its full potential, accelerate its growth and deliver a global destination for pioneering health innovation focused on life sciences R&D, data-driven innovation (

digital health Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses informat ...

and med tech), medical teaching, healthcare delivery and commercial enterprise. With plans to expand the city’s tram network to BioQuarter by 2030, the development of the Health Innovation District will support an estimated 9,000 new jobs and deliver a net zero location that promotes the wellbeing of its community and its neighbours. The pipeline of academic and clinical developments include th
University of Edinburgh Institute for Regeneration and Repair
(due to open in 2022), Usher Institute (due to open in 2024), co-location of Biomedical and Medical Teaching and NHS Lothian’s

Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion The Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion is a specialist eye treatment centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. It provides ophthalmic care for Edinburgh and the Lothians, and tertiary care for South East Scotland. History The E ...

Community Collaboration in response to COVID-19

The expertise and collaborative nature of BioQuarter’s community was demonstrated in extensive efforts during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Queen's Medical Research Institute
(QMRI ) COVID-related Research Hub was established as a rapid response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, bringing together experimental medicine clinical studies, interdisciplinary research teams, industrial partners and academic collaborators to understand the mechanisms of disease and discover effective treatments, whilst repurposing facilities and expertise to continue essential world-class biomedical pre-clinical research. Up to 150 researchers from th
Centre for Inflammation Research
were re-deployed to work on a new project �
STOPCOVID
– focusing on the inflammatory pathways that lead directly to lung injury, associated with the most severe aspects of COVID-19 and to test existing and experimental drugs to find a treatment. In 2022, a new multi-million pound research programme to develop treatments for lung infections such as COVID-19 and future pandemics was announced.

Companies at BioQuarter

Companies based on Edinburgh BioQuarter include: * RoslinCT -

GMP GMP may refer to: Finance and economics * Gross metropolitan product * Guaranteed maximum price * Guaranteed Minimum Pension Science and technology * GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library, a software library * Granulocyte-macrophage progenito ...

contract manufacturing and development organisation (CMDO), originally founded as Roslin Cells in 2006. * Fios Genomics – genomic and bioinformatics data analysis services for drug discovery & development. * Concept Life Sciences - pre-clinical Contract Research Organisation (CRO) and acquired by Concept Life Sciences, a

Malvern Panalytical Malvern Panalytical is a Spectris plc company. The company is a manufacturer and supplier of laboratory analytical instruments. It has been influential in the development of the Malvern Correlator, and it remains notable for its work in the ad ...

brand, in 2020. * Calcivis - dentistry imaging system * Edinburgh Molecular Imaging - clinical phase

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

company * Galecto, Inc. –

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

developing small molecules for the treatment of severe diseases, including fibrosis, cancer, and inflammation
Pharmatics
- AI powered

converting medical knowledge into predictive software * LifeArc - UK registered and self-funding charity, collaborating with scientists on diagnostics and therapies. * Resolution Therapeutics - developing macrophage cell therapies to treat diseases characterised by life-threatening inflammatory organ damage

References

External links

Edinburgh BioQuarter homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edinburgh Bioquarter Biology education Biology organisations based in the United Kingdom Biotechnology in the United Kingdom 2007 establishments in Scotland 2007 in science Economy of Edinburgh Education in Scotland Enterprise areas of Scotland Science and technology in Edinburgh Science parks in the United Kingdom