From science clusters to healthier cities: life sciences must deliver locally

As London Life Sciences Week brings investors, researchers, clinicians and founders together later this month, the sector has plenty to celebrate: extraordinary science, world-leading institutions and a growing number of innovation districts across the capital.

But as life sciences becomes more visible in our cities, it also faces a more demanding question about what that growth means for the people who live nearby.

New laboratories, research campuses and health-tech businesses can bring jobs, investment and international profile, but their long-term success will increasingly be judged by what happens beyond the building: whether they improve access to healthcare, create opportunities for local people, support healthier neighbourhoods and give communities a stake in the progress happening around them.

Covid brought vaccines, diagnostics and immunity into everyday conversation, and since then, genomics, health tech, wearable data and personalised medicine have made science feel more immediate and personal. Health is no longer something many of us think about only when we are ill, but something we increasingly want to understand and manage ourselves.

That shift is also changing the places we build. Life sciences was once a specialist property category, largely out of sight, whereas today science and innovation districts sit alongside hospitals, universities, transport hubs and neighbourhoods. Their value goes beyond the space they provide or the investment they attract, particularly where they can bring researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs and patients closer together.

The NHS is central to this because it is where innovations can be tested against real clinical need, patients can access trials and new treatments, and promising ideas can move beyond a pilot into routine care. That is “bench to bedside” in practice.

We can already see this across London. Project Oriel will bring eye care, research and education together in one centre, connecting Moorfields Eye Hospital, UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Charity, with the ambition of creating the conditions for new discoveries to reach patients more quickly.

At St Mary’s, the emerging masterplan combines a new trauma hospital with the potential to grow Paddington’s wider health and life-sciences ecosystem, connecting care, research, education, innovation and enterprise around one of London’s most important NHS institutions.

But better treatment is only part of the opportunity, because life sciences also has a role to play in creating the conditions in which people can stay well for longer.

Health is shaped long before anyone reaches a hospital, by safe routes, green space, good work, access to services and a sense of connection to where we live. The built environment is not simply a backdrop to health; the places we create can have a real bearing on it.

That means we cannot judge a life-sciences district by laboratory floorspace or investment alone. We should also look at what it brings to the neighbourhood, from better public spaces and safer, more accessible routes to jobs, skills and a stronger connection between world-class science and everyday life.

The recently consented Fleming Centre offers one example. Alongside laboratories, workspaces and clinics tackling antimicrobial resistance, it will include a free Discovery Centre, education and community programmes, flexible event space, a canal-side café and improved outdoor routes and planting. Underpinning that approach is a recognition that science can have greater impact when people are able to understand it, question it and feel part of it.

In Whitechapel, the Barts Life Sciences Cluster shows how science investment can become part of a wider story about place. Centred on The Royal London Hospital and linked to Queen Mary University of London, the emerging cluster brings clinical care, research and commercial innovation into close proximity. With more than £800m of planned private investment, it has the potential to create new jobs, homes, public space and community facilities, while making health innovation feel more connected to the needs and opportunities of east London.

That connection matters to the sector’s social licence. Local people are unlikely to judge a new cluster by its technical specifications, but by what changes around them: whether it creates opportunity, supports better care and gives them a stake in the progress happening on their doorstep.

As more life-sciences districts take shape across London, that should be part of how we judge their success. The question is not only how much investment they attract or how much laboratory space they deliver, but whether the benefits of that growth are felt beyond the boundaries of the cluster itself.