The Biocampus is an enterprise area in

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

, Scotland. It is part of the larger Edinburgh Science Triangle, which includes the

Edinburgh BioQuarter Edinburgh BioQuarter is an initiative in the development of Scotland's life sciences industry, which, , employs more than 39,000 people in over 750 organisations. A community of 8,000 people currently work and study within the boundary of Bi ...

and was the first dedicated national bio-manufacturing campus. Development on the site is supported through financial incentives and business rate reduction through the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

's enterprise area scheme. The campus was established in 2001 with a site to facilitate large-scale

biomanufacturing Biomanufacturing (or bioproduction) is a type of manufacturing or biotechnology that utilizes biological systems to produce commercially important biomaterials and biomolecules for use in medicines, food and beverage processing, and industrial appli ...

, with the initial development costing around £15 million. There are outline plans in place to expand the site with a further for a phase 2 project. The first facility on the campus was opened by Alba Bioscience, a subsidiary of Quotient, a company offering tests related to blood transfusion diagnostics. The firm received a

Queen's Award for Enterprise Queens is a borough of New York City. Queens or Queen's may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Queens (group), a Polish musical group * "Queens" (song), a 2018 song by Saara Aalto * ''Queens'' (novel), by Stephen Pickles, 1984 * "Queens", ...

in 2016 for their work in Midlothian both at the BioCampus site and the nearby Pentlands science park. The campus has close links to a number of university departments including

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

, the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. An evaluation in 2005 estimated that enterprise zones across Scotland had generated 58,000 full time jobs at a total public cost of £17,000 per ten-year job. However, some commentators have criticised the tax breaks and financial support given to private companies through enterprise zones, highlighting evidence that very few new high-quality jobs are created with most of the jobs being transferred from other parts of the country.

References

External links

*{{official, https://midlothiansciencezone.com/science/biocampus/ Biology organisations based in the United Kingdom Enterprise areas of Scotland Economy of Midlothian Biotechnology in the United Kingdom Science and technology in Scotland Science parks in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Midlothian

See also

References

External links