The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus has bought Lumen House on its site from an investment trust for £7.65m.

Lumen House is located on the Harwell Campus and with the current occupier soon to vacate the building it will most likely be used as a development opportunity by the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

The 700-acre science and technology campus has over 6,000 people working on it in more than 240 public and private sector organisations space, clean energy, life sciences and quantum computing.

Selling the building was an Oxford-based real estate investment trust focused on UK life sciences properties, Life Science REIT said.

The site was acquired by the investment trust in December 2021 for £7.05m.

A spokesperson for Life Science REIT said the sale provides the company "additional flexibility to progress more transformational opportunities.”

These include delivering fully fitted laboratories at Cambourne Park Science and Innovation Campus in Cambridge and progressing the development of Oxford Technology Park.

Director of Ironstone Asset Management, the company’s investment adviser, said: “The economic environment in which Life Science REIT acquired Lumen House is very different to the one we face today and the company is making capital allocation decisions which reflect that.

“By realising value from this investment now, we can better focus our efforts and the company’s capital on larger scale opportunities where we are already on site and where we believe that the return profile is more attractive.

“The fully fitted laboratory initiative at Cambourne Park Science and Technology Campus is a great example of that approach.”

In June, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus secured £300m of financing to help it expand and build out a new laboratory, advanced manufacturing, and office space.

Bosses have said this investment will help aid a "chronic shortage" of research space in the area. 

The finance was secured by the campus public-private partnership – a joint venture between Brookfield, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Over the next two years, Harwell will use the additional funding secured to build 440,000 sq ft of new laboratory and research buildings across the campus.

The investment and development facility has been provided by a consortium comprising Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Axa.

The UK government has invested over £3bn in scientific facilities at Harwell.

The campus has close links to Oxford University and other leading universities across the UK.

Harwell Campus is home to cutting edge facilities such as the Diamond Light Source Synchrotron, the National Quantum Computing Centre and the Rosalind Franklin Institute.