Work begins on new Scottish HQ for the BGS
£20 million Lyle Centre to become new headquarters for British Geological Survey in Scotland
ON 21 January 2015 work commenced on construction of the £20 million Lyell Centre on Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Campus. The Centre will be the new Scottish headquarters of the British Geological Survey (BGS) as well as a major joint BGS/Heriot-Watt University research centre for geological, petroleum and marine sciences.
John Ludden, executive director of the BGS, said: ‘It is a pleasure to see work begin on the British Geological Survey’s new home in Scotland. Our facilities and our staff, currently at several sites across Edinburgh, will be united here at the Lyell Centre alongside research teams from Heriot-Watt University.
‘This tremendous opportunity will broaden our science base and create an innovative hub of world-leading research in the geosciences in Scotland.’
Scheduled for completion in early 2016, the Centre will establish in Scotland a global centre of excellence based on research synergies and collaboration, bringing together key expertise from both institutions as well as an £8.5 million investment in top-level academic recruitment from around the world.
Research within the Lyell Centre will play a key role in finding pragmatic solutions and providing evidence-based, informed and reliable opinions in the areas of energy supply, environmental impact and global climate change, where inputs have traditionally been polarized. Its work will be both socially and industrially relevant at national and international scales.
The Lyell Centre is funded by the BGS, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Heriot-Watt University and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Additional funding of £8.5 million will underpin investment in top-level academic staff recruitment and student research positions.
A global recruitment campaign for the Lyell Centre, which will house the British Geological Survey (Scotland) and staff from the University’s Schools of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure & Society, and Life Sciences, was launched in December 2014.
