What is the opportunity?

A New Home

The Life and Mind Building will become the new home for two University departments: Experimental Psychology and the Department of Biology (formed of a merger of Zoology and Plant Sciences in 2022).

Experimental Psychology and Zoology occupied the Tinbergen Building site prior to its demolition, when the departments had to be relocated to temporary facilities across Oxford. Much of the former Department of Plant Sciences is based in outdated facilities on the north side of South Parks Road.

Unique Opportunity

An efficient, flexible new building design means the departments will require less space between them, and can be based on a single site at the gateway to Oxford's Science Area.

It brings a unique opportunity to co-locate departments whose combined research covers the full breadth of life on earth, promising transformational synergy and new opportunities for innovation.

A central goal of the Life and Mind Building development is the promotion of collaboration and openness between the fields of research and education, while also taking advantage of the efficiencies and flexibility that a shared building can offer.

Shared Global Impact Themes

While the future occupants of the building research a wide range of themes, many share the potential to significantly further our understanding of life on planet earth. Such impact themes include:

•    Living with biodiversity
•    Thriving on a healthy planet
•    Conflict, cooperation, social complexity
•    Organismal design, construction, inspiration

The new building will form a shared academic ecosystem, promoting collaboration and the sharing of ideas at the intersections of each of these areas, whilst better meeting the individual needs of different teams.

Shared Goals

The new Life and Mind Building offers opportunities beyond the generation of functional facilities for research and education. It will:

• Provide an enhanced home for Experimental Psychology and Biology

• Transform the relationships between the psychological and biological sciences, and their cognate disciplines, by enabling co-location and collaboration in emergent fields

• Enhance the educational experience

• Enable the positive transformation of the South Parks Road estate (the Science Area)

• Enhance the departments' ability to attract and retain talent (strongly influenced by the quality of facilities)

• Strengthen the impact of the University's Science Area through widening engagement with the public, policymakers and other end-users of research.