How much will it cost?

The initial cost to build the infrastructure for the new university is expected to be £30.47 million. Of that, £12.3 million is coming from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, £1.87 million from Peterborough City Council through land contribution, £12.5 million from the Local Growth Fund and a predicted £3.8 million from Anglia Ruskin. Phase Two of the project will be an ‘Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Research Centre/ Innovation Hub’ used for educational research and development (with no teaching taking place), and Phase Three will be an expansion of the campus. The hub, which has received Government funding of £14.6 million, will be managed by an ‘innovation partner’ which according to the report is: “an established global player in promoting business investment in research and innovation”. The partner is due to be announced in September and has: “worked with over 1,000 businesses across the globe to raise over £325 million for collaborative R&D (research and development) between academia and business in just 10 years”. The report declares that the partnership will: “transform the resilience, productivity and knowledge intensity of the local economy of Peterborough and the Fens”. One of the several aims of the partnership is to secure funding from five universities from the: “LondonStansted-Cambridge Growth Corridor and the OxCam Growth Corridor” to create eight innovation centres with a combined £10 million annual spend on research and development. Works on Phase Two of the project are expected to begin in October and be complete by 2022 at a cost of £18 million. Phase Three will help grow student numbers to 10,000 by 2029/30. It will comprise of two further teaching-focused buildings, opening in 2025 and 2028. It is expected that works on Phase Three will begin late next year.

Phases two and three of the project will cost between £68 million and £98 million and will need external funding. Investment is being sought – and so far has been received – from the Government, as well as other sources including: investors, local pension schemes, equitybased crowdfunding, large businesses and Peterborough City Council. The combined authority’s only financial contribution to the university project is funding for the campus and not for its future growth. Anglia Ruskin has also committed to integrating its existing nursing provision provided at Guild House into the new campus. Beyond the project, funding is also being sought from the national £387 million Local Growth Fund allocation.

This is to help deliver:

A central, multi-university

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research super-hub to connect local firms locally with global partners;

New business clusters and

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networks, especially in manufacturing;

£20 million of growth coaching,

• mentoring and capital for innovation-based firms;

A new local Foreign Direct

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Investment agency to attract high value firms globally;

A skills brokerage service

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to connect learners, and those retraining, with growth firms;

A network of new tech

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accelerators and incubators connecting Cambridge with the north of the county.

It is expected that there will be up to 2,000 students starting at the university in the 2022/23 academic year, rising to 3,000 by 2024/25 and 4,000 by 2025/26 with an “aspirational target” of up to 12,500 students by 2030/31.