NextGen Laboratory Space: Defining the Physical and Digital Architecture Needs for a Modern R&D Strategy

Escalating demand and opportunity for innovation

The biopharma industry stepped out of its comfort zone with its response to COVID-19, resetting expectations for the pace of innovation and bringing treatments to market.

Currently, the pressure to accelerate the trajectory of R&D speed and success is even greater. The source of such significant pressure on R&D organizations is a set of converging trends that demand greater throughput of innovative outputs. Scientific and technological breakthroughs alike present enormous potential to tackle unmet needs via the identification of novel targets and modalities. However, competition for many of these targets and modalities is escalating, creating a positive feedback loop that, in turn, amps up the acceleration of R&D asset development—for which the time on-market becomes even more valuable. This next wave of innovation, then, is one focused on patient personalization to create a fragmented and diverse portfolio as the industry shifts away from mass-market blockbusters.

Designing for productivity in the scientific workplace of tomorrow

Leaders in the life sciences have long since experimented with the design of workspaces to optimize innovation and collaboration in an effort to accelerate novel drug and therapy development. For Chief Scientific Officers (CSOs) and R&D leaders, performance improvements are being realized by reimagining the future of work.

Aligning workplace design to the organizational mission, purpose and strategy

CSOs and R&D leaders are guiding their rethinking of future workplaces using their specific overall purpose and mission as their North Star.

Constructing physical and virtual environments that realize the workplace strategy

Changing dynamics reflect the organizational evolution of workplace strategies, and CSOs and R&D leaders are addressing them in a manner that is consistent with the larger message and approach.

Designing customer-centric workplaces

Workplace ecosystems designed to foster productivity should offers optimal proximity to—and probability of interaction with—peers and interdisciplinary partners, with a focus on the individual scientist at its core. This may mean the use of shorter-term leases and flexible solutions to create a reactive, dynamic, and responsive real estate portfolio.

Photo credit: Hufton + Crow

Analyze working patterns to re-invent the Next Normal

As demonstrated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, modular and agile workplace solutions are cornerstones in the move to adapt to evolving team needs within a matter of days. Advanced analytics, spatial utilization techniques, and applications designed to monitor and evaluate employee experience can empower organizations to respond to changes in workflow, productivity, and employee engagement.

Face-off to fuel innovation

The remote work trend, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, has sparked a question in the minds of executives and R&D leaders alike: Does a physical office environment foster creativity and innovation? Valuable insights from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—and from Silicon Valley, the dominant technology hub—suggest an affirmative answer.⁹ Utilizing patent citation data from the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office, face-to-face meetings between workers produced a sizeable increase in patent citations across establishments—highlighting the value of in-person interactions and facilitating knowledge transfer and fostering innovation.

The unintended fallout from remote work predicts:

Wellbeing and the power of positive thoughts

In today's fast-paced and highly competitive landscape, creativity has become a crucial factor in driving competitive advantage. With the pressure on R&D leaders and CSOs to generate innovative outputs—themselves and through their teams—the role of human capital managers and consultants in fostering a supportive and imaginative work environment has become more prominent. Research has shown that positive emotions play a significant role in promoting big-picture, imaginative, and innovative thinking, making wellbeing an essential element of an innovative corporate culture.

Indeed, research posits that positive emotions have a spiral effect, lifting our spirits and wellbeing to new heights.¹⁰ And here's the cherry on top: positive emotions can quell negative emotions, creating a protective buffer that grows stronger over time.¹⁰ A happy workforce is a productive workforce: creating environments (i.e., emotive laboratory spaces) that encourage positive emotions not only elevates individual performance but also propels organizations to reach peak performance.¹¹

The turning point for scientific R&D space

Laboratories, much like every business, are deeply intertwined with environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. Consequently, a strong ESG proposition can be a conduit to greater value creation. Historically, the pharmaceutical sector has fallen far behind some industries in terms of the implementation of sustainable policies. For an industry that has historically been driven by the twin imperatives of cost and speed of development, the impact of sustainability continues to create positive ripples across the scientific R&D industry, with heavy implications for infrastructure planning.

Across industries, countries, and company sizes, an increasing number of organizations have been allocating more resources to ESG initiatives. More than 90% of S&P 500 companies now publish ESG reports in some form, as do approximately 70% of Russell 1000 companies.¹²

Presently, ESG-related investment has experienced a considerable rise, with global sustainable investments now topping $30 trillion,¹³ representing a tenfold increase since 2004. The magnitude of investment flow has been fueled by heightened social, governmental and consumer attention on the broader impact of corporations, as well as the role of ESG in a company’s long-term success.

A strong ESG proposition can help companies attract and retain quality employees and enhance motivation by instilling a sense of purpose, which bolsters overall productivity. With a stronger perception of their work’s impact, employees are all motivated to act in a pro-social manner—a fundamental principle required for collaborative working in the scientific space.

Occupancy planning concepts in the future of laboratory planning

Laboratory needs are growing, with scientists and principal investigators possessing unique lab requirements in addition to traditional office spaces. Office occupancy rates, while remaining deflated across industries retain their demand in the life sciences sector due to the collision of several trends, such as public health demographics and venture capital funding. The result is a supercharging of the life sciences industry.¹⁵

The pandemic convulsed commercial-property prices globally and the risk profile of some conventional property assets deteriorated sharply. In contrast, demand for assets like laboratories and data centers has grown from strength to strength—a trend emerging before the coronavirus pandemic, with physical laboratory space looking as safe as houses.

The demand for assets like labs and data centers has never been stronger. A consequence of such demand is that laboratory space is becoming increasingly unattainable. In Boston, which holds a sizeable portion of such space in the U.S., less than 5% of labs were available in the third quarter.¹² In the golden triangle—the triangulation between London, Oxford and Cambridge—physical space is depleted.

Indeed, with the increased spending on new drugs and the pouring of both public and private investment into biotechnology, spurred by the pandemic, there has been a concurrent increase in employment in the life sciences, vastly outpacing overall employment.

The lab is here to stay

Remedial approaches to the space deficit have welcomed the conversion of existing offices and industrial space. Boston Properties, for example, estimates the conversion of 5 million square feet of conventional sites and buildings into laboratories. The challenge is a mean feat, for laboratories are governed by stringent biosafety rules and complex requirements. However, property investors are up for the challenge. Retail space equipped with high ceilings enables high-performance ventilation and comes with service elevators for the transport of dangerous materials.

Conversion of traditional office buildings into laboratory spaces has skyrocketed—from a major overhaul of 100,000 square feet of space in Durham¹⁶ to the former Old Navy headquarters in San Francisco.¹⁷

Figure 3: What percent of the total portfolio is dedicated to lab space?

Source: Global Occupancy Insights, 2021-2022.¹⁸

Science and technology are undoubtedly a bright spot for property investors, and as the demand grows ever stronger, consideration of laboratory space usage is at the helm of discussions of chief scientific officers and R&D leaders. As the locus of work shifts, real estate investors are riding the wave of new opportunities.

Digital disruption in the lab: the R&D of tomorrow

Digitization and technological advances have powered the industrial revolution. In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT), a network of physical objects embedded with sensors, electronics, software, and online connectivity systems, has emerged as one of the central pillars of the ongoing technological revolution.

Coding IoT into the future of clinical laboratory systems

The IoT has gained prominence across different industries and is now making its mark in scientific workplaces around the world. The integration of interconnected machines and sensors into the laboratory environment is bringing a sense of security and balance to researchers' work and personal lives.

Blockchain enables “smart contracts” to be instigated, enabling distributed anonymous communication without a centralized authority. Smart laboratories supported by blockchain can preserve the end user’s anonymity while also maintaining transparency. As it does not allow for the deletion and alteration of information from blocks, blockchain is useful in the context of laboratory systems. As such, blockchain is set to front a new social network paradigm— in the future, smart laboratories could function as an online social network via blockchain-supported communication, wherein end users can review data and connect with key stakeholders.

Some of the most promising include:

Networks

Future trends to keep up with the demand of handling large volumes of data include a wide range of networks that range from short-range (Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth) to long-range (personal and cellular wireless communication networks).

Cloud and grid computing

Investment in grid or cluster computing is increasing— a trend attributed to its implementation in clinical laboratories, where it may reduce processing times, enable access to healthcare and academic professionals alike and be applied globally. Grid computing provides an essential means of decentralizing storage for different users free of cost and demonstrates potential in clinical laboratory systems.

Blockchain and online social networks: IoT

IoT architecture is inherently liable to privacy concerns arising using cloud services, as they require third-party handling. Additionally, data flow issues can create bottlenecks that require regular updates for maintenance. To address these issues, blockchain technology for cloud and fog IoT present several features that may enhance the functionality of laboratory systems, including decentralization, privacy, transparency and immutability. experimentation can bolster the volume of fit-for-use data generated.

Fog computing

A layer of distributed networks closely related to cloud computing, fog computing addresses the concerns of cloud computing through computation, networking and storage services between devices and cloud servers.

Big data visualization analytics

The ungainly task of managing huge volumes of data can be adequately addressed using enhanced data analytics capabilities. Big data tools can be harnessed to collect data from different hardware and software for cloud storage.

⁵ Siegel RL, Miller KD, Fuchs HE, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2022. CA Cancer J Clin. 2022;72(1):7-33. doi: 10.3322/caac.21708.
⁶ Olliaro P. What does 95% COVID-19 vaccine efficacy really mean? Lancet Infect Dis. 2021 Jun;21(6):769. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00075-X.
⁷ Fierer DS, Wyles DL. Re-treatment of Hepatitis C Infection After Multiple Failures of Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Mar 16;7(4):ofaa095. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa095.
⁸ Annual spending by PhRMA member firms, as reported in “Research and development in the pharmaceutical industry,” Congressional Budget Office, April 2021.
⁹ Atkin D, Chen KM and Popov A. The Returns to Face-to-Face Interactions: Knowledge Spillovers in Silicon Valley. 2022. doi: 10.3386/w30147
¹⁰ Garland EL, et al. Upward spirals of positive emotions counter downward spirals of negativity: Insights from the broaden-and-build theory and affective neuroscience on the treatment of emotion dysfunctions and deficits in psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review. 2020;30(7);849–864.
¹¹ Fredrickson BL. (2003). Positive emotions and upward spirals in organizations. In K.Cameron, J. Dutton, & R. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 163–175). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
¹² Governance & Accountability (G&A) Institute. Sustainability reporting in focus 2021. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹³ Global Sustainable Investment Review 2018, Global sustainable investment review, 2018. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹⁴ Harvard Business School Online. Business Insights. 15 eye-opening corporate social responsibility statistics. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹⁵ The Economist. Science and technology lifts the gloom for property investors. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹⁶ Durham.ID owner plots major overhaul for 100K SF of space as WeWork exits. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹⁷ Kidder Matthews (KM). San Francisco Life Science Market Report. Last accessed: January 2023.
¹⁸ CBRE. Chapter 9. Applying occupancy planning concepts to lab planning. Last accessed: January 2023.