Celebrations as Peterborough's £30 million university reaches a new milestone for its 'Living Lab'

A new milestone has been celebrated at Peterborough’s university with a topping out ceremony for its third phase which features a ‘Living Lab’ public science and technology space.

Political leaders and representatives of the £30 million ARU Peterborough and its partners attended the event at the campus off Bishops Road.

Construction began in June last year and the first students into the new building are expected in the autumn.

Funding has been provided by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, ARU, and Peterborough City Council plus £20 million from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.

Professor Ross Renton, principal of ARU Peterborough, said: “This is the third topping out ceremony at the university in three years and much has changed in those three years but most importantly it has not been the buildings that are the big change.

"The change is we have students in these buildings. We have students learning and thriving in our city. And our students are award winning.

"The university is already multi-award winning. Who would have thought three years ago we’d have a national award winning university at the heart of Peterborough? But we do.

"This building is a fantastic and exciting development, not just for here but for the region and for the country.

“The way this has been designed and thought through will mean it will be ready not just for the years to come but for decades going forward.

"We’ve got high quality micro biology facilities, tissue culture lab, high quality engineering facilities which will meet the needs for advanced manufacturing in this city and beyond and also our Living Lab, a golden triangle of expert researchers and lecturers working with the community in participatory research and with industry, creating knowledge at the heart of this city.

Looking to the future, he said: “But it doesn’t stop here. This is still only the start of the development of this university. We are already talking about phase four and phase five, six and beyond.

"If we want to reach the ambitions of this city we need to continue to be ambitious for this university.”

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Nik Johnson said: “There is a real sense of momentum at ARU Peterborough, which is already a real success story.

"The Living Lab is a shining example of the excitement surrounding this new building – a publicly accessible flexible space that can be used for events, education, exhibitions and more.”

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow said: "We are creating dreams for our young people.

"So many of our young people who have had to leave to go to university don’t come back – we’ve lost them.

"But no longer. Many of the applicants for this university come from PE postcodes and are choosing to invest their future in this city.”

Councillor Mohammed Farooq, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: “ARU Peterborough has always been incredibly aspirational since opening in 2022. It has quickly established itself as a fantastic asset in our city.”