Furthermore, this industrialised construction shift isn’t going to happen overnight.

Those present represented lab innovation – from pure research to routine mass-testing; from medical, pharmaceutical and genetics, to battery technology..The need to focus on the future function of labs, rather than generic labs was clear..

The group agreed that opportunities to magnify the value output of laboratories lie within the broad spectrum of data, automation/growth in data processing, and smart technology and systems.Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning offer transformational change in value creation.Although there are some individual examples of its real-life deployment, we are at the start of an exponential curve.. A thread of discussion around the idea that systems could be self-validating created significant energy in the room, as well as friction between those who understood how transformational such a realised idea could be with those who saw the potential disaster.

Regulators are clearly going to be either a key partner/enabler or barrier to smart developments.Or both.. What appears to be clear already is that the impacts of the growth of these technologies will be felt in all parts of laboratory operations: people, skills required, job satisfaction, locations, collaborations, buildings.

This is certainly not a time to be wedded to the bench..

Intimately linked, still early in its industrialisation but a few stages ahead of smart-technology, is automation and digitisation.‘If they need to crack on with something, they can in a quiet corner if there’s not many patients in,’ she says.

‘It’s quite nice to sit down there and have a conversation if you want to.’.Indeed, the atrium sets the tone for what is undeniably one of Circle Reading’s key architectural features - space.

‘Everything about this place is space,’ says Raj Goel.‘There’s nice space everywhere.’.