Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the
River Granta
The River Granta is the name of two of the four tributaries of the River Cam, although both names are often used synonymously. The Granta starts near the village of Widdington in Essex, flowing north past Audley End House to merge with th ...
in
Great Abington near
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, England.
The first idea for the park came from the then Chief Executive of
The Welding Institute
The Welding Institute (TWI Ltd) is a research and technology organisation, with a specialty in welding. It has had headquarters near Cambridge, England, since 1946, and has other facilities across the UK and around the world. TWI works across ...
(TWI Ltd) Bevan Braithwaite OBE. He started negotiations in 1992 for an option to buy the key 87 acres of farm land, on which Granta Park is now built, and obtained the planning permission from South Cambridgeshire District Council, which laid down the basic concept for a high quality, low density, fully landscaped development. A design team comprising
Latz+Partner, a leading German landscape design company and Eric Parry Architects developed the master plan for the park in consideration of ecological criteria with the aim of preserving and enhancing the existing rural landscape and ensuring the site would be easily accessible. A joint partnership was formed between TWI Ltd and MEPC plc, and Granta Park Ltd was created. MEPC, who at that time had already made a success of Milton Park in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, supported TWI professionally to turn Bevan Braithwaite's vision of a new Cambridge science and technology park into reality.
The new park began to take shape at Great Abington following a groundbreaking ceremony held at the end of 1997. Bevan Braithwaite, the Chief Executive of TWI Ltd, teamed-up with Councillor Shirley Saunders, Chairman of South Cambridgeshire County Council, and Gavin Davidson of MEPC plc to launch the building of a cluster of modern R&D facilities. Most of the key infrastructure was completed by summer 1998 with the development programme of the first Phase taking 5–7 years.
Building for the future
, Connect, March - April 2002, p.2 Set around a cricket pitch and overlooking a new lake in the wooded grounds adjacent to Abington Hall, the buildings contain research facilities and business accommodation for several thousand staff.
Granta Park provides not only new facilities for The Welding Institute's extensive R&D laboratories but also fulfils a need for purpose-built locations for the area's expanding biotech and technology sector. The following companies and other organisations are located there:
* Accelonix
* Alzheimer's Research UK
Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) is a dementia research charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer's Research Trust.
ARUK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, cure or prevent all forms of dementia, including Alzhei ...
* Certis
* Colonix Medical
* Gilead
Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> ...
* Illumina
* Infomedia
* Inivata
* Intergence
* ista
* Keronite
* Lonza
* Lycotec
* Mary's Ltd
* MedImmune
MedImmune, LLC was a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca before February 14, 2019, when it was announced that the MedImmune name and branding would be discontinued in favor of AstraZeneca.
MedImmune was founded in 1988 as Molecular Vaccines, ...
* OneNucleus
* Origin Sciences
* Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
* PPD
* TWI Ltd
* UCB Celltech
* Vernalis Research
Vernalis Research develops and applies fragment and structure-based methods to drug discovery, and has generated cell active lead compounds and development candidates against biological targets in oncology, neurodegeneration, anti-infectives ...
Extension
TWI finished the construction of 3 huge new buildings by the end of 2014. One of these is the new Granta Centre used as a conference centre.
External links
Granta Park
References
{{coord, 52.11740, N, 0.22322, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Industrial parks in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in Cambridgeshire