Context
The Imperial West Campus in the White City regeneration area, which at seven acres is about a third of the size of the main portion of the South Kensington Campus, will be at the centre of the College’s strategy to develop its translation activities.
At the heart of the new campus will be a Research and Translation Hub, which will support innovation from research ideas through to the development of spin-out companies. It will offer a shared environment for corporate and university partners to work together.
Imperial West will be a mixed use campus, including accommodation, new homes and retail and leisure uses alongside its research and teaching space.
The postgraduate accommodation on the site has now been completed. Work on the Research and Translation Hub is scheduled to begin in January, followed by the development of other parts of the site.
Key discussion points:
- The whole College community needs to engage in defining how Imperial West can be used to enhance our research, education and translation activities. Criteria are needed to guide decisions about what will be based there.
- Imperial West offers substantial opportunities to build the College’s relationships with business partners. In developing the campus, there should be careful consideration of the environment that would attract businesses to co-locate and engage with the embryonic ideas emerging from research there.
- The location of Imperial West 500 metres from the new Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine on the Hammersmith Campus should facilitate collaboration in developing activities across the two sites.
- The opportunities at Imperial West need to be fully incorporated into space planning considerations across all College campuses.
View the presentation given by Chief Financial Officer, Muir Sanderson