A NEW 40 million BioHub was hailed by Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes and UK Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove at a ceremony to mark significant construction progress.
The Aberdeen site is scheduled to open in October 2022 and will house up to 400 scientific entrepreneurs with the goal of doubling the number of life sciences companies in the region by 2027.
It will be home to spin-out, start-up and scaling businesses bringing new drugs, treatments, therapies and technology to market and creating high-skilled jobs to drive economic recovery in this fast-growing industry sector.
Opportunity North East is the lead partner and a funder for the project, which has secured £20 million of capital funding jointly provided by the Scottish Government and UK Government through the Aberdeen City Region Deal.
The BioHub will be a flagship addition to the city’s Foresterhill Health Campus, one of Europe’s largest integrated clinical, research and teaching sites for life sciences and medicine and will catalyse further collaborative innovation across the academic, commercial, and healthcare community.
Opportunity North East chairman Sir Ian Wood said: “BioHub is an iconic and truly transformational project that will deliver a huge boost to north east Scotland’s life sciences sector and contribute to the region’s economic recovery by creating jobs and providing the commercial infrastructure to support and attract businesses.”
Ms Forbes said: “The life sciences sector is a thriving part of Scotland’s economy, growing at more than 10 per cent a year, providing more than 41,000 jobs and on target to achieve £8 billion turnover by 2025.”
Mr Gove said the BioHub will deliver a “world-class facility to support new business start-ups and expand Scotland’s powerhouse of life sciences innovation”, adding it “will bring new jobs to the region”.
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