Proposals for a new research and development campus in Birmingham have secured the green light. The scheme is expected to create thousands of jobs upon completion and will provide a hub for healthcare and technology innovators. The hybrid application for the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus (BHIC) was 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 was 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 was also 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. The 10-year masterplan is expected to support the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and contribute £400m of GVA to the regional economy by 2030.
“The proposed hybrid application will deliver a health and innovation campus that will have substantial economic benefits for the locality. In terms of both the full and outline elements, no concerns are raised in relation to highway safety, character, ecology, amenity, drainage, contamination or flood risk. The proposal constitutes sustainable development and is therefore in accordance with the aims and objectives of both local and national planning policy and should be approved,” said a Birmingham City Council document.
