BioCampus

55°51′38.93″N 3°11′19.93″W The Biocampus is an enterprise area in Midlothian, Scotland. It is part of the larger Edinburgh Science Triangle, which includes the Edinburgh BioQuarter and was the first dedicated national bio-manufacturing campus.^[1] Development on the site is supported through financial incentives and business rate reduction through the Scottish Government's enterprise area scheme.^[2]

Biocampus. Across the road from the Bush Campus, another science park is being developed, this for biotech industries.

The campus was established in 2001 with a 12-hectare (30-acre) site to facilitate large-scale biomanufacturing, with the initial development costing around £15 million.^[3] There are outline plans in place to expand the site with a further 1,400 square metres (15,000 sq ft) for a phase 2 project.^[4][when?] The first facility on the campus was opened by Alba Bioscience, a subsidiary of Quotient, a company offering tests related to blood transfusion diagnostics.^[5] The firm received a Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2016 for their work in Midlothian both at the BioCampus site and the nearby Pentlands science park.^[3]

The campus has close links to a number of university departments including Heriot-Watt University, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Edinburgh.^[4]

An evaluation in 2005 estimated that enterprise zones across Scotland had generated 58,000 full time jobs at a total public cost of £17,000 per ten-year job.^[6] However, some commentators have criticised the tax breaks and financial support given to private companies through enterprise zones, highlighting evidence that very few new high-quality jobs are created with most of the jobs being transferred from other parts of the country.^[7]

See also

Other life science enterprise areas in Scotland include: Edinburgh BioQuarter; Forres, Moray; Inverness Campus, Highland; and Irvine, North Ayrshire.^[8]