Image: Foster + Partners
Billionaire’s Oxford-based institute announces 10-year plan, as government unveils £500 million Oxford-Cambridge corridor investment
The Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford has unveiled plans to spend more than £10 billion on talent and science programmes over the next 10 years, part of a major expansion by the private R&D institute.
The news, which chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed as a “major vote of confidence”, comes as the Treasury announced £500 million in funding to develop the Oxford to Cambridge corridor.
On 23 October, the EIT—funded by and named after US tech billionaire Larry Ellison—said its expanded Oxford campus would house a “cluster of purpose-built labs”, covering generative biology, plant biology, artificial intelligence and robotics, pathogens, and material and devices for life sciences. The institute was established in 2023 with the aim of commercialising scientific discoveries.
“Recruitment is currently underway to search for the best scientific talent as these expand,” the EIT said.
The institute said the £10bn investment plan “is for science programmes, scholarships and talent”, and was in addition to recently announced spending on the construction of its campus.
Oxford as global science hub
Last week, the president of the EIT, Santa Ono, said Ellison was investing £890m for an extension of its campus at the Oxford Science Park in Littlemore, on top of the £1 billion the entrepreneur had already committed to the institute. The campus, due to open in 2027, will expand from 300,000 sq ft feet to 2 million sq ft and house up to 7,000 researchers.
Last month, Ellison, who made his fortune through software company Oracle, briefly overtook Elon Musk as the world’s richest man.
Reeves called EIT’s latest announcement “a major vote of confidence in Oxford as a global hub for science and innovation”.
“It shows what can be achieved when government and world-class institutions like the Ellison Institute of Technology work together to deliver for our communities,” she added.
As part of its £500m investment in the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, the government is investing £120m in the reopening of the Cowley Branch railway line, including a new station at Littlemore where the EIT is located. The institute and other stakeholders are committing a further £35m to the reopened line.
Also within that overall package, “up to £400 million of initial government funding will kickstart development in Cambridge with affordable homes, infrastructure and business expansion”, said a Treasury announcement on the plans.
Government and private sector ‘join forces’
Lisa Flashner, chief operating officer at the EIT, called the initiative “a great example of what can happen if government and the private sector join forces and both contribute to a common goal”.
“It will help us attract world-class talent to EIT by linking up key innovation hubs with central London via direct train services,” Flashner said, adding that it would “facilitate a closer alliance” between EIT and the University of Oxford.
The government’s investment package also includes £15m for the Cambridge Global Innovation Hub “to create lab space for science startups to grow and compete on the global stage”.
Science minster Patrick Vallance—who is also the government’s Oxford-Cambridge innovation champion—said “these investments are a milestone, not just for the Oxford to Cambridge Corridor, but for the entire country”.
“This region has all the ingredients to be the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley or the Boston Cluster: somewhere that turns world-class innovation into economic growth the whole nation benefits from,” he added.
