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Imperial planning innovation hub centred around new £5m facility at White City

Imperial College London’s network of ‘Advanced Hackspaces’ is set to expand after the university revealed details of a dedicated £5m facility at its White City campus in west London.

Dubbed ‘The Invention Rooms’, the new building will be dedicated to supporting the next generation of investors, entrepreneurs and tech leaders by providing a community of inventors across an entire property.

The facility will build upon the institution’s network of six hackspaces, which will soon rise to eight, and form a big part of Imperial’s innovation push which has seen the hackspace concept integrated directly into the university to encourage cross-pollination between academics, inventors and students.

Professor Oscar Ces, who is a chemical biologist and part of the management team for the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace, commented: “The Advanced Hackspace is about powering innovation from the bottom up. We want to make it as easy for an undergraduate to make their idea a reality as it is for their faculty professor.

“It’s also an opportunity for hundreds of new collaborations – a place where a medic will talk to an engineer and a physicist will socialise with a computer scientist, helping combine brilliant ideas.”

Imperial’s hackspaces have proven a fertile ground for innovative businesses in recent years, with the likes of baby incubator firm LifeCradle, wearable device developers Gyroglove and modular smartwatch innovators Blocks all successfully spinning-out of one Imperial’s facilities.

The Innovation Rooms development itself will be its biggest yet, totalling 21,500 sq ft, in addition to the 2,150 sq ft Molecular Sciences Research Hub that is set to open in 2018.

The college is also planning a series of programmes to encourage participation and innovation amongst the local community, with plans for school children and local residents to get involved.

“At the Invention Rooms in White City we also have a unique opportunity to engage with the local community– from school pupils and doctors, to businesses and patients – to help inspire new ideas and so their fresh perspective can help to shape our research,” added Ces.

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