WORK begins today on a new research building near Didcot which will develop new technologies to tackle diseases and speed up drug design.

The £40m building – the central hub for the Rosalind Franklin Institute – will be situated on the Harwell Campus.

The Rosalind Franklin is a new national research institute, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation, which carries out interdisciplinary research.

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Vivienne Cox, chairwoman of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, who will be breaking ground at the site today, said: “This is an exciting day for the Institute as we begin to build the hub which is such an important part of our vision.

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“We already have several projects under way with our partners across the UK, and the hub will provide further impetus, creating a fantastic space for research and collaboration that will enable real advances to be made.”

Oxford Mail:

The ground floor of the building, designed for optimum stability to house sensitive scientific instruments, sets the design apart.

The foundations of the ground floor will be separated from the rest of the building to shield it from vibration.

To prevent electromagnetic interference, stainless steel reinforcement will be used in the structure.

The aim is to create a close to perfect, stable environment to test the limits of specialist technologies such as electron microscopy and mass spectrometry.

The remaining three floors will house collaborative working spaces, offices and social areas as well as structural biology, chemistry and imaging laboratories, designed to be flexible to support new collaborations and avenues of technological development as the Institute grows.

Set to open in late 2020, the 5400 sq m building will ultimately provide space for over 200 researchers from academia and industry.

The building will honour the institute’s namesake, Rosalind Franklin, the experimental scientist famous for taking the X-ray photograph of DNA that helped establish its helical structure.

The front of the building will incorporate graphics of the DNA double helix taken from the iconic X-ray photograph – known as Photo 51.

Terry Spraggett, managing director for Public Sector Construction for Mace, who will carry out the building project, said: “This is a hugely important project that has the potential to transform the lives of millions through the cutting-edge research it will support.

"It is a complex and technically challenging build that we are proud to be delivering on behalf of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.”

The construction will be managed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, who are also one of the partners of the Institute alongside ten leading UK universities. Harwell Science and Innovation Campus was chosen as the ideal site for the hub as it also houses other complementary research capabilities, including the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Diamond Light Source, as well as attracting industrial partners who take advantage of the co-location of these national research facilities to collaborate and further their own scientific research.

STFC executive chairman Professor Mark Thomson said: "One of STFC’s key initiatives in recent years has been the creation of our very successful health technology cluster here at Harwell. "As the delivery partner for the new home of the Rosalind Franklin Institute we see this unique facility as an essential element in that growing health technology ecosystem and I look forward to supporting the RFI in finding answers to the great challenges of the day in the life sciences."