University approves first building for new Western campus

The University of Glasgow has approved the first new building on the former Western Infirmary site. The first permanent building on the extension of the Gilmorehill campus will be the Research Hub. The University hopes to demonstrate its commitment to research with the building, which is due to open in 2020.

The Research Hub will house around 600 academics, most of whom will be postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. It will facilitate a collaborative environment, where researchers from all disciplines will have the opportunity to work together to tackle research challenges. The Research Hub will house researchers from areas such as Quantum and Nanotechnologies, Technologies Touching Life, International Development, Creative and Cultural Economics, and Chemical Intelligence.

The University of Glasgow’s Principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, said: “It will also be a Research Hub for the whole of the University because beyond these themes, it will bring together people who are interested in making progress in interdisciplinary research. It will be a place where researchers can meet, they can discuss new ideas and they can put them into practice.”

The Research Hub will consist of high quality office and laboratory spaces, in which entrepreneurs, corporate research and development teams, and spin-out companies can work with the university programmes. The entire second floor of the building will be open to the public.

Professor Andrew Tobin, a Molecular Pharmacologist at the University, stated: “We feel as if this building will make the research that is going on accessible to the public. That’s a really exciting part of this building.”

The University Court approved The Research Hub and the University will now submit the plans to the Glasgow City Council.

The University took possession of the Western Infirmary site in April this year, planning a £1 billion expansion of the Gilmorehill campus. This expansion over the next decade will include more than just the Research Hub; new buildings for the social sciences, the School of Science and Engineering, the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, and the College of Arts are also being planned. The site will include a new central square and other commercial opportunities, hereby creating a new space for the community as well as the University population.

 

Glasgow University’s researchers are already tackling global challenges; researching global problems such as infections and immunology, climate change, chronic disease, and cancer. With the building of the Research Hub, the University intends to ensure that researchers can tackle these global challenges on a larger scale and beyond their respective disciplinary boundaries.