The Queen opens The Francis Crick Institute in London

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh recently opened The Francis Crick Institute, a £650 million biomedical research facility in London. Development of the project begun in 2008, with Arup called in to provide procurement strategy and building engineering expertise.

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical and health research institute, headquartered in London. The institute is focused on understanding the development of diseases to find new ways to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases. Francis Crick brings together a range of scientific disciplines to develop health care related solutions, employing around 1,250 scientists and 250 support staff when it reaches full capacity in 2017. The founding members include the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the Wellcome Trust, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The institute was officially opened this month by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by the Duke of York. As part of the opening ceremony, the royals toured the new building from the Crick next door to St Pancras and the British Library, speaking with scientists and major donors, as well as unveiling a plaque to mark the opening of the institute.

One of the major contractors involved in the development of the £650 million institute is Arup. The professional services firm delivered a procurement strategy and provided building engineering expertise to the project, including design of the complex building services required to accommodate the sometimes sensitive research equipment. The design of the building achieved an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating.

Steven Berry, Associate Director at Arup, says, “This was an exciting project to be a part of. We needed to work closely with the Crick’s scientists, the designers and the contractor to make sure that the multi-purpose needs of the building were met. Each lab has been adapted and purpose-built for each research department, which meant a lot of collaboration to understand the specific needs of all disciplines using the facilities.”