July 13, 2022
ARC, the UK’s smarter real estate partner for science and innovation, has today launched Motherlabs, an accelerator and incubator space for early-stage science, technology, and innovation businesses.
With a flexible, short lease structure, Motherlabs will help its members to grow sustainably, innovate and move ideas from concept, to lab, to commercialisation at pace.
ARC’s first Motherlabs will officially open later this month at the heart of the West London’s life sciences ecosystem and has already secured its first member with the majority of the remaining space under offer. Motherlabs’ first member, Sania Therapeutics, is a seed stage gene therapy business, aiming to improve the quality of life for people with neurological diseases, has taken circa 1400 sq. ft of lab and office space.
Motherlabs at ARC West London houses eight, brand new, containment level two lab spaces, ranging from 670 sq. ft to 1,600 sq. ft in size.
Flexible enough to suit every type of start-up or spin-out including Biopharma, RNA therapy and Gene and Cell therapy companies, the fully fitted, multifunctional labs contain everything ready for immediate occupation and will be managed by a dedicated lab services team.
Working closely with Bulb Laboratories and Architects BDG, we’ve designed fully flexible spaces that can be easily adapted for different types of science and tech start-ups. At the heart of each facility will be the Motherlabs services team who will be on hand to support each member, providing access to central shared facilities and services.
Daniel Pagella, ARC’s Senior Director for Asset Management said: “The Motherlabs concept responds directly to the requirements of our early-stage customers, giving them access to fully capable lab space, without the costs or compromises they’ve had to make in the past. We’re providing them with everything they need to progress their research and scale at pace.
“Timely access to fully fitted, ready to move in space is critical for a start-up, so we’ve worked hard to make the process as quick and simple as possible. At ARC, supporting early-stage businesses is something we care about deeply. If we’re to solve the challenges of tomorrow, we need to facilitate the progress of science today.”
ARC has ambitious plans to grow Motherlabs, rolling the business out across its 1.6 million sq. ft cluster network, including at Harwell, and Oxford, in order to ease the demand supply imbalance for lab space across the burgeoning life sciences sector.
ARC West London currently has over 122,000 sq. ft of innovation space with plans to double the space to support scaling organisations. Its new landmark building ‘The Refinery’, due for completion in 2024 will bring a further 120,000 sq. ft of flexible wet and dry lab space and state-of-the-art research and development facilities for SME to multinationals across the science and tech sectors.
ARC West London is an integral part of the wider West London life science ecosystem, close to Imperial College’s medical training and research campus within Charing Cross Hospital, and in close proximity to the internationally acclaimed Institute of Cancer Research, Imperial’s White City Campus and Hammersmith Hospital.
With demand for high-quality, strategically located lab-enabled space outstripping supply, ARC has plans for further growth across the U.K. and Europe and is in active discussions on several potential new sites. ARC has five million sq. ft of development potential across the UK’s Golden Triangle, with three million sq. ft planned at the 700-acre Harwell site and a further 750,000 sq. ft in Oxford.
