Reports

First-stage Report of the Council on the project to expand the Addenbrooke’s Clinical Research Centre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital

The Council begs leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In this Report the Council is seeking approval in principle for expanding the Addenbrooke’s Clinical Research Centre (ACRC) as set out below.

2. Since inception the ACRC has been an indispensable component of research infrastructure on the Hospital campus, making a significant contribution to translational research and generating high-impact publications. Such excellence in experimental medicine research, subtended by the ACRC, played a major role in the University of Cambridge, in partnership with the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, gaining an NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award in 2006. A recent review of its millennial Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) by the Wellcome Trust and NIHR, led by Sir Mark Walport, has ranked the Cambridge unit as the leading CRF in the UK.

3. However, the ACRC is now operating at near full occupancy. The challenge of rising occupancy was met, in part, by opening the CRF at weekends. Nevertheless, these units increasingly face scheduling difficulties due to limited capacity. In particular areas of the School’s research (e.g. Metabolic Medicine and Cancer), there are pressing needs for additional space for research wards and clinics. There is no scope for physical expansion of the CRF or Clinical Investigation Ward within the existing envelope of the ACRC facility in the Addenbrooke’s Centre for Clinical Investigations/GSK building.

4. The Council now proposes that a new building is constructed adjacent to the existing ACRC facility with a total additional floor space of 3,550m2 across five levels of accommodation, a basement level, and rooftop plant areas.

5. The proposed works will:

•provide the additional space required for research wards and clinics, including an Interventional Investigation Unit, an Early Phase Cancer Clinical Trial Unit, a Human Metabolic Research Facility, a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility and an Eating Behaviour Unit;

•leverage the existing research infrastructure already present within the adjacent building to increase efficiency;

•enable the ACRC to meet the needs of the increased volume of additional experimental medicine activity subtended by the funding streams that have been secured.

6. The ACRC have bid for and secured a £5m strategic funding award from the Wellcome Trust for research that will be conducted in the new building. A target budget of £17m has been set for the total cost of the building project, of which a further £5m will come from the Wellcome Trust, with the balance being targeted for fundraising. The project cost is based on a start on site in late 2014 with completion in early 2016. In order to achieve the programme constraints, the detailed planning application will be made whilst the final land negotiations are being concluded.

7. Further details relating to the design, maintenance, and recurrent costs, with proposals for funding, will be brought to future meetings of the Buildings Committee and the Planning and Resources Committee. A Second-stage Report will be published next year.

8. Drawings of the proposed scheme are displayed for the information of the University in the Schools Arcade. A map showing the location is set out below.

Download a PDF version of the location map

9. The Council recommends:

I. That approval in principle be given for the expansion of the ACRC facility as proposed in this Report.

II. That, if required by the scope of the project, the Director of Estate Management be authorized to apply for detailed planning approval in due course.

15 November 2013	L. K. Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor	Richard Jones	Susan Oosthuizen
	Stephen J. Cowley	Fiona Karet	Rachael Padman
	Athene Donald	F. P. Kelly	Shirley Pearce
	I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay	Mark Lewisohn	John Shakeshaft
	Nicholas Gay	Rebecca Lingwood	I. H. White
	David Good	Mavis Mcdonald	A. D. Yates
	Andy Hopper