GSK will build a new flagship global research and development centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the company confirmed last week, part of a £400 million investment over three years that also upgrades its laboratories at Ware in Hertfordshire. The 300,000 square foot Cambridge building is already under construction and will house more than 1,000 scientists. GSK will leave its Stevenage research campus in a phased move by 2029. Roles transfer to Cambridge and Ware.
The UK Innovation Corridor welcomes the investment as we aim for an increase in our GVA to £350bn by 2040. Ultimately, GSK could have put this money anywhere, in places like Boston or Basel, but it has chosen a site within the corridor, retaining its large footprint here. The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is one of the largest in Europe. GSK’s scientists will work alongside Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Royal Papworth and the University of Cambridge’s clinical school, close enough to walk between a lab bench and a hospital ward.
GSK has done research in Stevenage for more than 30 years, and whilst its exit will be keenly felt, there is fantastic wider story for the town to tell. Companies at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst raised close to £1 billion between them in 2025. Autolus makes cell therapies at commercial scale in the town, next door to the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Airbus assembles satellites on the same road as the GSK campus and built the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover there. MBDA designs missiles in the town. The £1 billion Station Gateway scheme, now in masterplan consultation, will put at least 1,000 new homes around the station. By 2029 a fitted-out research campus becomes available beside a cluster that needs more space near the thriving Bioscience Catalyst, and North Hertfordshire College’s new engineering and construction campus in the former indoor market this summer. The town has an extraordinary amount of opportunity associated with it.
John McGill, Director of the UK Innovation Corridor, said: “This is £400 million moving along the Corridor, not out of it. Stevenage’s science economy is extremely resilient, and whilst GSK’s departure will undoubtedly have an impact on the town and people based there, the site it leaves behind is a serious opportunity.
We will work with GSK, Stevenage Borough Council and Hertfordshire partners on what happens there next.”
Image Credit: Prologis UK
