Reports

Second-stage Report of the Council on the alteration and refurbishment of two buildings on the Old Addenbrooke's site

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

1. In this Report the Council is seeking approval for the refurbishment and alteration of two buildings on the Old Addenbrooke’s site as set out below.

2. A First-stage Report for this project was published on 28 June 2017 and approved by Grace on 28 July 2017 (Reporter, 2016–17, 6471, p. 694 and 6476, p. 828). This Second-stage Report is to inform the Regent House about further development of the scheme and to seek approval for construction works to proceed.

3. The MRC Toxicology Unit legally transferred to the University in March 2018. The Unit remains based in Leicester, in accommodation leased from the University of Leicester. It was agreed that space would be provided for the Unit in Cambridge, principally in a refurbished laboratory facility on Tennis Court Road (building E025 in the attached plan). Work will also be undertaken to improve links and create shared facilities with the Department of Pharmacology; some refurbishment within the Pharmacology Building (building E030 in the attached plan) will be required to accommodate activity dislocated by the core works. The building works proposed in this Report will support the development of the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences, an initiative that promotes the development of therapeutics and the integration of industry into academic activities.

4. The buildings are arranged around an east-facing hard-landscaped pedestrian and cycle courtyard. Pedestrian access to both buildings is from Tennis Court Road. A new shared reception for the buildings will be created, opening onto the outdoor plaza and feeding into a central core that will house shared seminar/meeting rooms, administration areas, and shared café and social interaction space, improving links between the two buildings and providing a point of focus for interactions. A Cryo-Electron Microscope Imaging Suite housed in refurbished space on the ground floor of the Pharmacology Building will benefit from sharing technical knowledge and expertise with two further machines in the nearby Sanger Building (Department of Biochemistry). The project will refurbish 3,996m² (Net Assignable Area) of space. Planning permission for the project was granted on 16 April 2018.

5. The estimated cost is £24.6m. The MRC will contribute £6.75m, with the remainder to be met from funds available within the University, principally from the Capital Fund. Physical relocation of the Unit to Cambridge will follow completion of the building project, which is scheduled for April 2020. The Planning and Resources Committee approved the Full Case for the project at its meeting of 27 June 2018.

6. Drawings of the proposed development are displayed for the information of the University in the Schools Arcade and are reproduced online at https://www.prao.admin.cam.ac.uk/capital-planning/plans-and-drawings. A plan showing the location of the new building is shown below.

7. The Council recommends:

I.That approval be given for the works outlined in this Report.

II.That the Pro-Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for planning1 be authorized to accept a tender for the works, within the available funding, in due course.

29 June 2018	Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor	Nicholas Gay	Susan Oosthuizen
	Ross Anderson	David Greenaway	Michael Proctor
	Richard Anthony	Jennifer Hirst	John Shakeshaft
	R. Charles	Nicholas Holmes	Susan Smith
	Stephen J. Cowley	Alice Hutchings	Sara Weller
	Daisy Eyre	Fiona Karet	Mark Wormald
	Anthony Freeling	Mark Lewisohn	Jocelyn Wyburd

Location plan: Buildings on the Old Addenbrooke’s site for the proposed alteration and refurbishment work

Report of the Council on a new Crop Science Building and associated facilities

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

1. In this Report the Council is seeking approval for a new Crop Science Building for the University, to be co‑located with the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB) on its Cambridge headquarters site.

2. The Cambridge Centre for Crop Science (3CS) is a partnership between the University and NIAB to facilitate and promote translational research and teaching in crop science, and will be led by the Russell R. Geiger Professor of Crop Science. Capital funding of £16.928m towards the costs of the new Crop Science Building – and associated glasshouse and service facilities at NIAB’s other main operational site at Park Farm, Histon – has been awarded from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF), managed by Research England. This will be supplemented by an allocation of £2m from the University’s Capital Fund.

3. The Full Case for the project was approved by the Planning and Resources Committee at its meeting on 16 May 2018. The proposed investment will create University laboratory and plant growth space for work on crops, rather than the model species that are the focus of much of the University’s present plant science research. Co‑location with NIAB will create new capacity for field-scale work and facilitate improved connections with the food and agricultural industries. Food security and sustainable agriculture has been a research priority for the University for several years, as reflected in the Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre. 3CS will be led by the Department of Plant Sciences but will encompass researchers from across the University. The new research programmes enabled by this investment will allow the University to include crop science as a substantial part of its undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

4. The facilities will be leased to the University for a period of 60 years and will therefore constitute a University building for the period of the lease. The principal terms and conditions of an Agreement for Lease that would be acceptable to the University were approved by the Finance Committee’s Business Sub-committee (FCBC), under delegated authority from the Finance Committee, on 25 June 2018, with the FCBC noting that some matters required further clarification. The FCBC recognized that there were both risks and opportunities presented by the project but that, provided there were certain safeguards in place within the finally negotiated Agreement for Lease, the University should have sufficient ability to cover its interests. The University facilities will be established as part of a wider programme of refurbishment and development, led by NIAB, across its two sites. Planning consent was accordingly sought and received in each case by NIAB. Work on the Crop Science Building – which will provide a gross internal area of 1,721m² for use by the Centre – is expected to begin in October 2018.

5. Drawings of the proposed scheme are displayed for the information of the University in the Schools Arcade and are reproduced online at https://www.prao.admin.cam.ac.uk/capital-planning/plans-and-drawings. A plan showing the location of the Crop Science Building is shown below.

6. The Council recommends:

I.That subject to the signing of an Agreement for Lease on terms that are in line with those approved by the Finance Committee’s Business Sub-committee, approval is given for the construction of a new Crop Science Building and associated facilities as described in this Report.

4 July 2018	Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor	David Greenaway	Susan Oosthuizen
	Richard Anthony	Jennifer Hirst	Michael Proctor
	R. Charles	Nicholas Holmes	John Shakeshaft
	Stephen J. Cowley	Alice Hutchings	Sara Weller
	Anthony Freeling	Jeremy Morris	Jocelyn Wyburd

Location plan: proposed new Crop Science Building