Six laboratories and laser room in new university engineering centre

The Royce Discovery Centre will bring laboratories, workshops and offices for more than 180 students, researchers and staff between Portobello Street and Orange Street in the city centre.

The building’s work will focus on early-stage research into materials discovery and processing, running alongside the Royce Translational Centre at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Campus at Catcliffe. It will be occupied by The Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, which enables academics to work with the private sector.

As part of the redevelopment, an existing wing of the university’s Portobello Centre, and car parks either side of it, will be knocked down. Six ‘vibration sensitive’ labs are to be provided along with a ‘laser room’. A planning statement said the centre would be a ‘significant and positive addition to the city’.