Reporter 30/6/99: Joint Infrastructure Fund: Notice

Joint Infrastructure Fund: Notice

21 June 1999

1. The Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) was established, following the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review in July 1998, at the level of £600m (£300m from Government and £300m from the Wellcome Trust for purposes consistent with the Trust's aims), and was augmented by £100m of HEFCE funds in March 1999 (see paragraph 49 of the Allocations Report, Reporter, p. 649). The Fund covers all elements of research infrastructure for science and engineering encompassed by the remits of the Wellcome Trust and the Research Councils, including research equipment and infrastructural research facilities, new scientific research buildings, and the refurbishment of laboratory or research-related space. The programme will run for three years, with five rounds of applications until October 2000, although the final deadline for applications for new buildings and refurbishments will be April 2000. The minimum bid level is £750,000. In the first two rounds the University has submitted twenty-one applications of approximately £230m in value; seven of these sought funding for equipment and the remainder, which are the subject of this Notice, were for buildings or refurbishment.

2. The Council and the General Board take this opportunity to inform the University of those applications to JIF for funds for the major refurbishment of existing buildings, or the construction of new buildings, which were submitted in the first round and were successful or are still under consideration, and those which were submitted in the second round. Because of the extremely short timescale for the preparation of applications, submissions in the first round were limited to those for which plans were already at an advanced stage, which had been considered through the normal University procedures (including, where necessary, approval by Grace), and for which the necessary planning approval had already been obtained.

Round 1: Submission date 4 December 1998

Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Pavilions 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and central core

Department of Chemistry, major programme of refurbishment and new extensions

Centre for Business Research, fit-out to Level 6 of the Judge Institute of Management Studies

Biological Sciences building, Phase II, Wellcome/CRC Institute for Cancer and Developmental Biology

An announcement was made on 11 May 1999 that the project in the Department of Chemistry has been approved, subject to confirmation of the exact funding details. The remaining projects listed above are still under consideration.

Round 2: Submission date 30 April 1999

Department of Engineering, Manufacturing Institute (West Cambridge)

Department of Engineering, Centre for Advanced Electronics and Photonic Technologies (West Cambridge)

Department of Engineering, Centre for Geotechnical Process and Construction Modelling (West Cambridge)

Department of Physics, Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanoscale Science (West Cambridge)

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Multidisciplinary Materials Laboratory (West Cambridge)

Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience Research (307 Huntingdon Road)

Clinical School, laboratory refurbishment for the Department of Medicine and the Department of Pathology

Centre for Computer Science (West Cambridge)

Department of Geography (Sir William Hardy Building), Centre for Quantitative Earth and Environmental Systems Analysis

Department of Genetics, major research laboratory refurbishment

The outcome of applications submitted in Round 2 and of those carried over from Round 1 is expected to be announced in November 1999.

3. The central bodies are aware that, if applications are successful and funding is obtained, further matters will require detailed consideration as the schemes are developed, including running costs and the reassignment and refurbishment of vacated space. Any proposal which involves the construction of a new building, or a substantial alteration to an existing building, will be put forward for approval by the Regent House, in the usual way, by means of a Report and a subsequent Grace.

Table of Contents