Plans for Food and Health Building Approved

South Norfolk Council has granted  planning permission for a new food and health research building on the Norwich Research Park, bringing together the Institute of Food Research (IFR) with aspects of the University of East Anglia’s (UEA)  Norwich Medical School and the Faculty of Science with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s (NNUH) gastrointestinal endoscopy facility.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has earmarked funds for this major initiative with the remainder from the other partners in the project (IFR, NNUH and UEA).

The ambition is to deliver a step change for food and health research and the translation of this science into innovative healthy food products and therapies to benefit society and the UK bioeconomy.

The partnership with the hospital will help researchers to work with patients who choose to volunteer for food and clinical trials to understand further the relationship between food and health and lifelong wellbeing. The centre will attract food, pharma and allied industries that need to acquire understanding and the evidence of effects of products on human health. Multidisciplinary projects with other partners on the Norwich Research Park, the John Innes Centre and the Genome Analysis Centre, will maximise the impact of the excellent bioscience and scientific knowledge of one of the UK’s major research parks.

Work on the new building is due to start in September, ahead of the planned opening in late 2017. It will accommodate approximately 300 science-related posts, as well as providing a regional gastrointestinal endoscopy facility for 40,000 patients each year.