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Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030.

Or both.. What appears to be clear already is that the impacts of the growth of these technologies will be felt in all parts of laboratory operations: people, skills required, job satisfaction, locations, collaborations, buildings.This is certainly not a time to be wedded to the bench..

Intimately linked, still early in its industrialisation but a few stages ahead of smart-technology, is automation and digitisation.Certainly, for automation, there is more confidence and immediate view about the tangible benefits that it could bring.. ‘Automating out’ routine work can have a significant impact on cost where there is the scale to support the investment.Routine laboratory work takes scientists away from research thinking and potentially is a turn-off to those considering a career in laboratories.

However, this is not a simple path.It requires a change in the skill sets required in laboratories: scientists who develop skills in equipment engineering and coding or hardware and software engineers who develop skills in science.

The current education system does not produce cross-fertilised disciplines (although skills like coding are becoming more endemic in the cohorts entering the workforce today).. Perhaps a more pressing problem is the fact that the new workforce of the 2020s is not keen to travel into an office or laboratory to work, preferring working remotely.. For research work and smaller more specialised laboratories, the automation story is different.

Without the scale, the investment in robotised systems against simple improvements in efficiency does not add up.These he describes as being ‘of a very good size...not too big… So they’re not cold and very clinical,’ he says, before highlighting that because the patients all have their own individual rooms, ‘there is much more space.’ Each in-patient room also contains a couch able to double up as a bed for guests if they want it overnight.

It’s all been well considered, in other words, with practicality and comfort being the priorities..This ongoing sense of space, light and comfort lend themselves to what is undeniably a positive hospital experience for staff, with the feeling manifesting in a variety of ways.. Sharon Matchey, Circle’s Admin Lead, works alongside Adam Chivers on the admin floor and comments on the department’s open plan structure, ‘If you’re having a bad day the team lift you,’ she says.

‘We all keep an eye on each other.’.‘It’s a bit of a team spirit, really,’ confirms Adam.. Paul Highton is located nearby with other key members of the Circle Team, including the Head of Operations and the Hospital Director.