A world-class medical science centre is being planned for London by a consortium of Britain’s biggest funders of clinical research, The Times has learnt.

The Government’s Medical Research Council (MRC) has joined forces with the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College, London (UCL) to develop the £350 million British Library International Science Site (Bliss).

It would be the largest laboratory of its kind in the world, accommodating 1,500 leading researchers in different fields. The scheme has excited scientists, who hope that it would attract talent from abroad. It depends, however, on a successful bid for a 3½acre site near the British Library and St Pancras station, valued at at least £28 million, which the Government is selling.

The consortium has made it to the final round of bidding and will learn within weeks whether it has won.

If successful, the Bliss campus would become the new home of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), which the MRC has controversially decided to move from north to central London.

It would house the World Influenza Centre, which monitors the risks posed by avian flu, and NIMR research groups studying stem cells, genetics, neuroscience and diseases.

Cancer Research UK plans to move its laboratory from Lincoln’s Inn Fields. University College Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL are within walking distance, allowing access to patients taking part in clinical research and to the Institute of Neurology’s imaging facilities.

Researchers would be able to draw on the expertise of UCL medical scientists and those in fields such as engineering, whose skills are becoming more important to clinical studies.

The intention is to allow scientists to build inter-disciplinary collaborations and to speed the process by which basic discoveries are translated into therapies.

The centre’s proximity to the new Channel Tunnel rail terminal and to rail stations serving Cambridge, Oxford and the North would further enhance cooperation with both domestic and international research teams.

The Wellcome Trust’s headquarters and its Wellcome Collection museum are within five minutes’ walk.

The Bliss project fits squarely into Gordon Brown’s agenda for science, which emphasises “translational” research to turn advances into drugs and therapies. However, the competition to develop the brownfield site brings this goal into conflict with another of his priorities: social housing.

The land, once earmarked for expansion of the British Library, is being sold by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Camden Council has given provisional planning permission only for a “mixed development” which must include affordable homes or community facilities. Any bid that does not include this element is certain to attract local opposition.

The Bliss partners said that they could not comment on the scheme while the bid process was ongoing. Other bidders plan residential, hotel, retail and office projects.

The Times understands that the Bliss bid is not the highest and that some exceeded £50 million. However, the department is not obliged to sell to the highest bidder, only to get “best value” for the taxpayer. If Bliss is successful, it would end four years of turmoil over the future of the NIMR. Its scientists have bitterly contested a plan to link it to UCL, which they say will inevitably involve cuts and more limited facilities. Though some still have concerns about how the Bliss campus would be organised, most accept that it is by far the best alternative so far presented.

Until this land became available, the MRC intended to build a new institute on the site of the National Temperance Hospital on Euston Road.

Hilary Leevers, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said: “It would be good to see the Government supporting such a focus of excellence for research science and to see similar projects in other regions.”

The Big Four

Medical Research Council

— Government funding agency that distributes more than £460 million a year to medical scientists

— It intends to move its National Institute for Medical Research from Mill Hill in North London to the Bliss campus

— Founded in 1913, the institute has about 760 staff. Its scientists have won five Nobel prizes

— The key areas of research for the institute include influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids, stem cells, neuroscience and genetics

Cancer Research UK

— Formed in 2002 when Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Campaign merged

— It is one of Britain’s biggest charities, spending £315 million on cancer research in 2006-07

— Currently funds 4,250 scientists, doctors and nurses in its own institutes, universities and hospitals

— It would move its laboratories at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London to the Bliss campus

Wellcome Trust

— Set up in 1936 with a bequest from Sir Henry Wellcome, it now has an endowment of £13 billion

— It is the biggest biomedical charity in the UK, spending about £500 million annually

— It would contribute funding support to Bliss, focusing on integrative biology and advanced microscopy facilities It recently opened the Wellcome Collection, a museum and cultural space devoted to explaining medical science

University College London

— Founded in 1826, its breadth of available expertise would allow Bliss scientists to collaborate with physical scientists and engineers

— It has more than 4,000 academic and research staff

— The Institute of Neurology in Queen’s Square, London, is one of the world’s leading centres of its kind, with state-of-the-art imaging technology such as MRI scanners

Source: Times database

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