Larry Ellison’s ‘critical’ £1bn Oxford Science plan approved

Oxford city councillors on the planning committee all gave the thumbs up to Larry Ellison’s further plans for the science park off Grenoble Road in Littlemore.

Approval has been given to the Ellison Institute to extend the existing three buildings upwards and add two ‘link atriums’ connecting them together to form one large research and development centre.

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The first atrium will have walkways on all levels and will serve as the principal entrance, featuring meeting rooms, seminar space and a cafe.

And the second will have stepped terraces to accommodate shared workspaces, a concealed 250-seat auditorium and a greenhouse.

Now that the planning application has been granted permission, work that has already begun on-site from the initial plans can resume, having been put on hold pending the results.

Image of how the buildings will look (Image: Oxford City Council)

Oxford City Council first approved plans for three separate lab and office buildings on plots 23-26 at the science park back in 2023.

It will include 30,000 sq m of research laboratories, supercomputing facilities, an oncology and preventative care clinic, plus a “state‑of‑the‑art” home for the Generative Biology Institute and the Plant Biology Institute.

Costing more than £1 billion, the campus was due to open fully in 2027, but timescales are likely to have been delayed amid these changed designs.

Construction works on the site have been put on pause (Image: Oxford City Council)

At the council meeting on Tuesday, June 23, Guy Wakefield, planner at built environment consultancy Ridge, and Matt Abney, senior director of real estate and projects at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford appeared for the development.

Mr Wakefield said the scheme is expected to support around 1,900 full-time equivalent roles in the construction phase rising to over 3,500 annual full-time equivalent roles, once the building is fully operational.

He added: “Another benefit is the actual operations that are taking place within the buildings and what will hopefully be achieved within them.”

The planner cited that part of its biology research will focus on food production, with the amount needed to be produced between now and 2050, higher than the last 5,000 years combined.

Chair of Oxford City Planning Committee Louise Upton (Image: Ed Nix)

On the research, he said: “It’s critical to the sustainability of the environment and the world and we can’t see those needs ending.”

At the meeting questions were asked about tree planting, after a Thames Water pipe meant that an area of proposed trees had to be scrapped, as well as car park provision.

The new plans for Plots 23-26 Oxford Science Park (Image: Oxford City Council)

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The science park is in walking distance from the proposed Littlemore Station for the upcoming Cowley Branch Line, which will provide rail links to the city centre and London Marylebone.

As such plans for parking spots have already been reduced significantly, to a number the council deemed acceptable.

Larry Ellison, co-founder of tech giant Oracle, is reputed to be the fifth richest man in the world and is behind a number of other projects in and around Oxford.

That includes the refurbishment of world-famous pub The Eagle and Child.