(NU/1311) Main Contractor for the Innovation Centre

The University is a partner in the Newcastle Science City initiative which promotes Newcastle as a city of science across the world. The 24-acre site will become an exemplar in sustainable urban development, known as Science Central (developed by a civic partnership between Newcastle City Council, Newcastle University and Legal & General), attracting leading edge science and technology organisations to a mixed new community which will encompass a variety of educational, business, residential and leisure uses.

Enabling, infrastructure and public realm works were completed in 2014 to make the site development ready and the first buildings, The Core, The Key and the Urban Sciences Building are now open. Construction works for the NCC Laboratory Building have begun and the University's Learning and Teaching Centre is due to begin mid-September and is expected to open at the beginning of the academic year in September 2019.

The next Newcastle University building on the Science Central site will accommodate the National Innovation Centre for Ageing and the National Innovation Centre for Data. The address is 3 Science Square, Science Central, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG.

This tender was for the recruitment of a main contractor for the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) and the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) scheme. Due to the dual funding streams from the Government and their respective cash flow criteria, it has been necessary to split the scheme into two phases, essentially the substructure and steelworks and then the remaining construction works.

The funding for this scheme will be provided by the MRC/BEIS Science Investment Fund and the EPSRC/BEIS Fund, with Newcastle University also supplementing those grants. The construction works are fully covered by the aforementioned but further funding streams may also be realised as the scheme develops, including those from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The contract has been awarded on a 2-stage basis, with the PCSA fee being the amount stated above. Cost of the works will be confirmed at the end of the second stage.