A week ahead of the Budget, London Life Sciences Week 2025 was a rallying cry when it comes to the Capital’s clout in driving innovation and economic growth. 

The Life Sciences Sector Plan and industrial strategy emphasised the role the government sees in the sector and Britain’s biotechs. Despite this, ideas and scientific excellence alone will not be enough.  

The event showed how innovation depends as much on physical constraints and effective placemaking as it does on sound science. This point was raised by Medicines Discovery Catapult CEO Professor Chris Molloy in his keynote speech launching LLSW’s Conquering Cancer Innovators Forum. 

Sponsored by London Cancer Hub, clinicians, biotech leaders and investors at the Forum stressed the need for more investment, lighter regulation and faster pathways to move from discovery to commercialisation.  

Through it all, the importance of place stood out. The spaces in which biotechs operate shape their ability to experiment, recruit talent and scale. 

Built environment to breakthroughs 

Chris captured the mood when he called for a national environment that makes the UK a place where biotechs can become “fit to fund” and eventually “fit to grow”. As he put it, “the nest into which you farm your invention must be warm”. It was a powerful metaphor that innovation needs ideas but also depends on the right environment for them to take shape. 

Whether in the design of buildings, the provision of amenities or the flexibility of laboratories, it’s clear that no innovation cluster, however strong its research base, can remain competitive without the right infrastructure. 

The architecture of innovation 

The ambition and potential of Britain’s biotechs was on full display at the event, but their founders were clear about what they need to succeed:  

• Faster planning approvals 
• Realistic rents 
• Closer proximity to clinical environments 
• Access to data and laboratories that can adapt to new breakthroughs 

Above all, they want a frictionless ecosystem where collaboration can take hold. 

Help, not a hinderance: the built environment’s role 

Discussions throughout the event emphasised several ways in which Britain’s built environment could play a leading role.

1. Reimagining retrofits

Biotechs want sustainability as well as quick and predictable routes to occupation. Retrofitted spaces offer both while reducing carbon impact. Projects supported by Meeting Place, such as LS Estates’ 17 Columbus Courtyard in Canary Wharf, show how existing office buildings can be converted into viable R&D spaces to suit early-stage firms.

2. Quality over quantity

Done right, well-designed buildings can increase productivity, attract talent and speed up bench to bedside innovation. The London Cancer Hub, being brought forward by Aviva Capital Partners and Socius, recently scooped this year’s Healthcare and Life Sciences NLA Award.  

Gensler’s design for the £1bn development shows how flexible space, translational proximity and social amenities can shape scientific outcomes.  

Smaller interventions matter too. The Cancer Hub recently launched Sutton’s first padel courts as a meanwhile-use wellbeing amenity, strengthening its culture of innovation.

3. Invest in amenity

As the UK’s largest single ownership innovation community, Milton Park’s £14m Signal Yard development, shows the importance of providing quality amenities.  

When it launches next year, it will include a mix of food and beverage, retail and leisure venues, including a social enterprise brewery and bakery. It shows how innovation districts succeed when they create places where people want to work and collaborate together.

4. Simplifying the comms

Events like London Life Science Week are an excellent opportunity to shine a spotlight, but the UK often punches below its weight when it comes to the narrative on innovation. 

As new science districts take shape, it will become increasingly important for the built environment sector to deliver clear communication which resonates with audiences, stakeholders and prospective tenants. 

If places are to attract interest from investors, tenants or talent, stories need to be simple and compelling. Meeting Place’s work raising awareness of Medicines Discovery Catapult’s recent story (which will see nuclear waste transformed into cancer treatments) shows how more accessible storytelling can cut through and build awareness. Having created an impactful hook, the story received widespread pick up with media, featuring on The Times Radio and the BBC.

5. Collaborative and connected ecosystems

Britain’s scientific excellence is often held back and undermined by fragmentation between our institutions, with their people and data working in silos. 

The London Cancer Hub proposals offer a solution. By bringing together the Institute for Cancer Research, London Borough of Sutton, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Maggies and even local schools, the project aims to deliver bench-to-bedside breakthroughs in one location. It’s the sort of model that can allow long-term growth take root. 

What the Budget should recognise 

London Life Sciences Week was a reminder of a simple fact.  

If Britain is to boost bench to bedside innovation and compete globally with the likes of Basel or Boston, it must first invest in the places that allows that innovation to take form, attract capital and reach the market.  

Streamlined planning reform, incentives for retrofitting, targeted infrastructure investment and support for regional R&D clusters from the Chancellor would all help strengthen the UK’s position in life sciences.