Finishing Touch Marks Progression of New Institute

The construction of the Quadram Institute, Norwich Research Park’s new centre for food and health research, reached a significant stage during March with the final cement pouring.

George Freeman MP, chair of the Prime Minister’s Policy Board and former UK Minister for Life Sciences, led a ceremony to mark the occasion, which was also attended by representatives of Quadram Institute’s four partners, the University of East Anglia (UEA), the Institute of Food Research (IFR), the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The Quadram Institute, which is being built by Wates Construction, is on target to open in mid-2018, when it will house 300 scientists and 100 clinicians, integrating research teams from UEA’s Faculty of Science and Norwich Medical School, the IFR and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s gastrointestinal endoscopy department to create one of Europe’s largest centres of its kind, focused on research across four themes of the gut, healthy aging, food innovation and food safety.

These themes link closely with the world-class plant and crop research undertaken at the John Innes Centre and bioinformatics at the Earlham Institute, both also on Norwich Research Park, creating a unique set of resources to deliver new foods, treatments and health and lifestyle interventions.

The Quadram Institute will also house a new regional endoscopy centre which, as well as undertaking research and teaching on gastrointestinal health, will carry out around 40,000 procedures a year. Mark Davies, NNUH Chief Executive, said: "As a University Teaching Hospital, NNUH has a very active research programme. Working with our Norwich Research Park partners, we are now another step closer to making the Quadram Institute and its future opportunities for life-saving research, a reality. It also provides our patients with a new state-of-the-art endoscopy unit, which will be the biggest in the UK.”

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