Job-creating R&D campus set for green light

Proposals for a new research and development campus in Birmingham have been recommended for the green light. The scheme is expected to create thousands of jobs upon completion and would provide a hub for healthcare and technology innovators.The hybrid application for the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus (BHIC) has been brought forward by a long-term collaboration between the University of Birmingham, as landowner, and investor-developers Bruntwood SciTech.The application site comprises approximately 10.6 acres of brownfield land and is located adjacent to the district centre of Selly Oak, in close proximity to the University of Birmingham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.Full planning permission is sought for phase one, which consists of a seven-storey office and research development building (building one), with an ancillary café, a temporary surface car park, as well as associated infrastructure and landscaping.Three floors of building one will be home to the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA). This facility will be occupied by the University of Birmingham and will focus on enabling the classification of patients and their treatments.Building one has a gross internal floor area of approximately 171,000 sq ft and, in addition to being occupied by the university, will provide a hub for businesses working in medtech, biopharma, precision medicine, healthcare AI and genomics. Supporting facilities will also be provided, including meetings spaces, and a café on the ground floor.The temporary surface car park, providing 258 spaces, including six accessible spaces, five motorbike spaces, and 68 bicycle spaces, will provide parking for occupiers of building one, as well as accommodate occupiers of the second phase of development.Outline planning permission is sought for the remainder of the application site to bring forward up to a further five office and research development buildings and a multi-storey car park. A gym is also proposed in one of the buildings.The maximum provision for the multi-storey car park is 1,333 car parking spaces.During the construction phase, it is estimated that the development will create approximately 175 on and off-site full-time jobs.Once operational, the development is expected to create 2,146 on-site full-time jobs. A further 2,950 jobs could be created elsewhere in the West Midlands due to the direct and in-direct impacts of the development on supply chain businesses.