The Innovation Centre is the first phase of NRP plans to create 5,000 jobs by 2020. More than 30 office and laboratory units have been built and fitted out in a refurbished 4,215m2 three-storey building.
The NRP is Europe’s leading centre for research in food, health and environmental sciences. Nearly 3,000 scientists are already based on the park at the John Innes Centre, Institute of Food Research, the Sainsbury Laboratory, the Genome Analysis Centre and the University of East Anglia, as well as a number of science and innovation businesses.
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) NHS Foundation Trust is to move its microbiology service to the Innovation Centre this month.
Krishna Sethia, medical research director of NNUH, said: “The Norwich Research Park is already home to Europe's largest concentration of microbiologists but a missing part of the jigsaw has been expertise in medical microbiology. We are pleased and excited about the possibilities this move to the NRP Innovation Centre brings in terms of not only providing a continued high-quality microbiology service for the hospital but also fostering more combined research and development that will unlock benefits to patients.”
The NRP Innovation Centre complements the NRP-based Norwich Bio-Incubator (NorBio), a facility that provides laboratory and office facilities for start up businesses in a number of disciplines including forensics, ecology consulting, pharmaceuticals, genetics and science-related publishing.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), The Greater Norwich Development Partnership, the University of East Anglia and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provided funding for the NRP Innovation Centre.
