Major new data centre set for Norwich Research Park

Work will soon start on a huge new data centre at the Norwich Research Park in Colnely Lane.

The John Innes Centre site, which is part of the Norwich Bioscience Institutes, dates back to the 1960s and the "ageing, outdated buildings are no longer suited" to the data being collected. 

Plans show how the data centre might look once completed (Image: BDP) The existing data centre will be demolished under the plans.

The new building, which will be more than 1,100msq in total, will also be home to a new combined heat and power facility.

The work will take several years, with the new centre due to be completed by the beginning of 2026 and fully operational by the beginning of 2027.

Professor Neil Hall (Image: Earlham Institutes) Professor Neil Hall, Director of the Earlham Institute and Chair of the NBI Data Centre Board, said: "Once it's completed, the shared data centre will be one of the most powerful high performance computing systems for bioscience anywhere in the UK. It’ll cement the region's status as the best place to conduct data-intensive bioscience.

"The Norwich Research Park is home to a number of world-leading research institutes, where talented scientists are using cutting-edge technology to ask important scientific questions. All this research generates huge amounts of data, which - if properly stored and managed - will lead to breakthroughs.

The Research Park has been growing quickly (Image: Norwich Research Park) READ MORE: Historic city cafe set for huge refurb as new managers take over

“This development will deliver the computational performance we need to support our science into the future. It’ll provide a cutting-edge, energy-efficient facility to house increasingly powerful high performance computing systems.

“The state-of-the-art design will also redistribute waste heat generated by the hardware, which will help to heat other buildings on the site. This should significantly reduce the environmental impact and help to meet wider sustainability targets for the research we carry out."