According to property consultants Bidwells, The Ellison Institute of Technology’s buy of the 450,000 sq ft Daubney Project at Oxford Science Park accounted “for the lion’s share” of funding.
Oxfordshire’s laboratory market recorded annual take-up of 620,200 sq ft in 2025, based on Bidwells’ newest knowledge overlaying workplace and laboratories throughout Oxford and the broader county.
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The institute of know-how has additionally purchased the Eagle and Child pub in St Giles, with restoration work below manner, and it is because of reopen in 2027, after remaining closed since 2020.
In the workplace market, prime rents in Oxford rose to £65 per sq ft by the top of 2025, based on Bidwells.
City centre availability stays “constrained”, with 93,000 sq ft accessible and no items above 20,000 sq ft.
Bidwells expects rental development to stay constructive over the medium time period, with forecast workplace rental development of 3.7% each year over each the following three and 5 years.
Duncan May, associate at Laboratory & Office Agency for Bidwells, stated: “2025 was a blended yr for workplace and lab leasing in Oxfordshire. Funding situations have been tighter, decision-making slowed and, away from a small quantity of very massive commitments, the occupational market was extra selective than the headline take-up determine would possibly recommend.
“However, the Ellison Institute’s dedication is undoubtedly important and long-term in nature, and it reinforces Oxfordshire’s place inside a globally recognised science and know-how cluster.”
The institute is constructing a science and know-how campus on the science park.
It has utilized for planning permission to increase the present three buildings upwards and add two ‘link atriums’ connecting them collectively to kind one massive analysis and growth constructing.
The first atrium would have walkways on all ranges and would function the principle entrance, incorporating assembly rooms, seminar space and a café.
The second would have stepped terraces to accommodate shared workspaces, a hid 250-seat auditorium and a greenhouse.
Construction work on the three buildings authorised 2023 has already began, however has now been paused as a result of of the brand new utility.
The buildings will present a “state‑of‑the‑art” house for the Generative Biology Institute and the Plant Biology Institute.
In its planning assertion, the applicant stated: “The imaginative and prescient is to ship an built-in analysis surroundings that helps world‑class scientific exercise, improves connectivity and wayfinding throughout the buildings, and achieves robust environmental efficiency.
“The proposals build on the architectural language established at Littlemore House and Brook while responding to the site’s context, landscape and access considerations at Oxford Science Park.”