The University of Edinburgh has recently been granted planning permission by the City of Edinburgh Council for the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM) which is set to become the flagship development of the city’s BioQuarter.

The SCRM will be situated adjacent to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and on completion the three-storey centre will cover 96,875 sq ft and become the first part of Edinburgh’s 100-acre BioQuarter. It is planned that the SCRM will be operational in three years time.

Scottish Enterprise believes that the BioQuarter will establish Edinburgh as one of the top ten centres for biomedical commercialisation in the world. When completed the entire site is hoped to provide 500,000 sq ft of research space and 900,000 sq ft of accommodation for commercial research-based companies. It is expected to create 6,500 new jobs and to generate an extra £350m for the Scottish economy. It will also house the largest population of stem-cell researchers in the country.

Stephen Gallagher, senior director for business infrastructure at Scottish Enterprise, told PIN: “The latest announcement is an important step forward in the ongoing development of Edinburgh’s BioQuarter. This groundbreaking venture will capitalise on the unique combination of researchers, clinicians, patients and businesses and will lead to greater collaborative working and more commercialisation of Scotland’s world class Life Sciences research.”