Two senior hires at Bidwells bolster Oxford team targeting ‘space at pace’ for booming life sciences

Two of the region’s leading advisors to the science and technology sector have joined property consultant Bidwells this month just weeks after the firm acquired Oxford-focused planning consultancy Turnberry Planning.

Science and technology (S&T) specialist Emily Slupek joins as a Partner from project management firm Buro Four, where she led its S&T division.

Emily works with developers, funders and tenants to deliver major science developments at science parks in both Oxford and Cambridge.

Emily joins alongside experienced Oxford agent Duncan May who becomes a Partner after more than ten years helping lead VSL’s Oxford team, strengthening a Bidwells agency team already acting on a number of the key Science & Tech parks across the region including the Harwell Campus.

Bidwells also acts for some of Oxford’s fastest-growing S&T starts-ups including acting as agent to the world’s largest university spin-out venture capital fund, Oxford Science Enterprises. Bidwells’ acquisition of Turnberry Planning saw widely respected Oxford planning expert Chris
Pattison and his team of five join the consultancy earlier this summer.

Bidwells’ Head of Oxford Richard Todd said: “Our senior Oxford team is now one of the most experienced in the city and we’re really excited about our offer to developers and investors looking to make an impact in the region by helping meet the massive global demand for research space.

“There are big challenges to delivery in a highly constrained market which makes joined up, ambitious thinking an essential ingredient of any plan to bring forward the kind of high quality, flexible space being sought by some of the world’s fastest-growing research businesses.”

Demand for Oxford laboratories hit record levels this year with Bidwells’ H1 2022 research identifying 860,000 sq ft of requirements from life science and technology companies as global capital floods into the region.

But lab supply remains limited with less than 20,000 sq ft available which Richard says highlights the desperate need to deliver this specialist space in the coming 18 months.

Bidwells is currently project managing the delivery of three buildings on The Oxford Science Park (TOSP), majority owned by Magdalen College, Oxford, and is aiming to deliver over 400,000 sq ft of offices and labs by the end of 2023.

Richard said: “Our senior team has the kind of deep knowledge and insight into what research-focussed businesses in Oxfordshire need from their buildings and, crucially, know what it takes to deliver this space at pace, something now critical to meet this urgent demand from businesses who could relocate to any number of global locations.”

Emily is on the NLA Expert Panel member for its Innovation Districts programme. She was project director for the design and construction of two new laboratory buildings on the Begbroke Science Park, in Oxford, totalling 135,000 sq ft.

She was also responsible for leading the construction of a new 100,000 sq ft three-floor HQ laboratory for Abcam at Cambridge BioMedical Campus (CBC) and the delivery of a second 100,000 sq ft speculative CBC building for Cambridge Medipark.

She said: “Joining the market’s leading science and tech advisors is a perfect fit for me as my passion lies in sharing and exploring a deeper understanding of what it takes to make successful science buildings.

“By drawing upon the insights of my colleagues in other disciplines in the sector, we will bolster our understanding of live real estate requirements and bring this to the delivery of new buildings, enabling us to continuously evolve with changing market needs in real-time.”

Duncan said: “After 20 years working in the region, I can honestly say there has never been a more exciting time to be working here. I’m delighted to be joining a Firm that has lived and breathed some of the huge changes we’ve seen in recent years.”

Bidwells advise two-thirds of Oxford’s colleges and is the leading adviser to the science and technology sector in the region with more than 400 employees working across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

In the last four years, Bidwells secured the largest market share of office and lab leasing deals in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc region.