HERON Bros has been hailed for the speed at which it is constructing the new Edinburgh Innovation Hub.
Being delivered in a partnership between East Lothian Council and Queen Margaret University (QMU), the hub will act as the anchor for the wider Edinburgh Innovation Park, which is to be built on a 50-acre site by the learning institute’s Musselburgh campus.
Professor Richard Butt, deputy principal of QMU, praised the contractor’s speed of delivery at recent a topping out ceremony. Heron Bros started work on the 7,200 sqm facility in March 2023, with plans for it to be operational in the summer of 2025. The facility will bring research, industry, and academia under one roof.
The venture is supported by £28.6 million from the UK Government, £1.4 million from the Scottish Government and £10 million from East Lothian Council as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.
“I think as always it’s teamwork,” Kevin Farrell, project manager at Heron Bros, told Project Scotland when asked what he puts the project’s success down to. “It’s exciting reaching this point and it leaves us on a nice high – finishing for Christmas and getting two weeks off to relax and come back for the big push to the finish.”
Featuring flexible lab, office, and fully equipped meeting and conference space for rent by high growth small to medium enterprises (SMEs), the hub will focus on food and drink-related innovation within the context of health and wellbeing.
“It’s small to medium enterprises, that’s where everything starts,” Kevin added, revealing there’s been excitement regarding the hub’s potential to aid innovation. “Giving them an opportunity in such a great facility just gives them that boost and start – and you never know where it could go.”
Tenants will be able to rent flexible accommodation packages for move-in ready space that is bespoke to their size and needs, with a ‘good number’ of expressions of interest already, ahead of full-scale marketing to potential tenants in January.
Key to the design of the hub is its hybrid frame, which is unusually made up of concrete and steel.
“It’s a complex structure,” Kevin continued. “Because the laboratories are on the ground floor, it’s a concrete structure (on the lower half) so the concrete structure has more stability in it, and less vibration. There’s been vibration monitoring that we’ve done throughout the project. As you can imagine, a microscope, if the vibration is too high, it can have a real impact on it so there’s monitoring we need to do on the ground floor.”
The project’s focus will now turn to completing the internals and getting the hub to commissioning stage ahead of its summer opening.
Speaking at the official topping out ceremony, councillor Norman Hampshire, leader of East Lothian Council, said, “This is a key moment for this project, which will create a sought-after location for business growth and will attract high value jobs for East Lothian and the surrounding area. The interest shown already by businesses at various stages of set-up and growth, and from important sectors such as food and drink and tech and life sciences, has been fantastic. This Innovation Hub will attract innovative businesses to one of Scotland’s fastest growing areas.”
Sir Paul Grice, principal and vice-chancellor of QMU, added, “We are very excited to see the Edinburgh Innovation Hub so close to completion and to mark this milestone with our partners. Along with driving economic development locally and nationally, the Hub will act as a gateway into QMU for businesses, increase opportunities at the university for industry-relevant research and knowledge exchange, promote an entrepreneurial culture, and increase the vibrancy of the area around the campus. The Hub is not just a new building, it will be a new business.”
