The Biocampus is an enterprise area in Midlothian, Scotland. It is part of the larger Edinburgh Science Triangle, which includes the Edinburgh BioQuarter and was the first dedicated national bio-manufacturing campus.[1] Development on the site is supported through financial incentives and business rate reduction through the Scottish Government's enterprise area scheme.[2]
The campus was established in 2001 with a 12hectare site to facilitate large-scale biomanufacturing, with the initial development costing around £15 million.[3] There are outline plans in place to expand the site with a further 15000ft2 for a phase 2 project.[4] The first facility on the campus was opened by Alba Bioscience, a subsidiary of Quotient, a company offering tests related to blood transfusion diagnostics.[5] The firm received a Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2016 for their work in Midlothian both at the BioCampus site and the nearby Pentlands science park.
The campus has close links to a number of university departments including Heriot-Watt University, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Edinburgh.
An evaluation in 2005 estimated that enterprise zones across Scotland had generated 58,000 full time jobs at a total public cost of £17,000 per ten-year job.[6] However, some commentators have criticised the tax breaks and financial support given to private companies through enterprise zones, highlighting evidence that very few new high-quality jobs are created with most of the jobs being transferred from other parts of the country.[7]
Other life science enterprise areas in Scotland include: Edinburgh BioQuarter; Forres, Moray; Inverness Campus, Highland; and Irvine, North Ayrshire.[8]