Bespoke research facility offers new hope to diabetics

Innovation Building, University of Oxford

Oxford, UK

The Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford (NNRCO) is an innovative target discovery and translational research institute with a focus on identifying new therapeutic opportunities for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.

The Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford (NNRCO) is focused on identifying new therapeutic opportunities for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.

The Innovation Building provides a focal point for the interaction between pharma, university researchers and clinicians.

Our experts worked with the University to brief the suite of bio-containment laboratories, associated write-up space and bioinformatics workspace.

Challenge

Located in the Innovation Building on the Old Road Campus, Oxford, it builds on a long-standing relationship between Novo Nordisk and the University of Oxford. The two organisations formed a landmark strategic alliance anchored at NNRCO, which has been in operation since mid-2017.

The new institute is at the heart of one of Europe’s largest medical research facilities. The challenge was to integrate the new facility seamlessly into the wider building. The Innovation Building provides a focal point for the interaction between pharma, university researchers and clinicians, with the goal of facilitating research collaboration and encouraging the sharing of functions and activities on the campus.

Chris Abell and Bruce Nepp, the team formerly operating as Abell Nepp (AN) who are now part of Buro Happold, provided user briefing, internal laboratory planning and fit-out design services to the University of Oxford for the integration of Novo Nordisk within the Innovation Building.

A new ‘technical’ staircase and service lift provides an uninterrupted science connection between the two research floors to facilitate the sharing of the suite. Image: Abell Nepp.

Solution

The Abell Nepp team worked with the University to brief the suite of bio-containment laboratories, associated write-up space and bioinformatics workspace. The fitout design was incorporated within the Innovation Building shell and core designed by Make Architects.

A new ‘technical’ staircase and service lift provides an uninterrupted science connection between the two research floors to facilitate the sharing of the suite. The write-up, office and meeting functions are co-located with the labs and connected through a shared public atrium space providing circulation through the building.

Value

The new facilities enhance the University of Oxford’s Innovation Building’s already strong reputation as a centre for world-leading research with the development of laboratories focused on providing critical, life-changing opportunities for patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.

Our team brought a long experience of working on specialist research spaces and wet labs, and translated a deep understanding of the requirements of the end-users into the design for the space.