The biotech firm selected the Harwell health tech campus as the location for its Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre.

Construction will begin this year, with the facility expected to become operational in 2025, subject to planning and regulatory approvals.

The project will encompass a research, development and manufacturing facility, including a clinical biomarker laboratory – a prefabricated modular laboratory constructed in Northumberland which will then be installed on the campus.

Moderna’s new MITC will be made up of two buildings totalling 145,000 sq ft.

Moderna’s planned new vaccine research and production facility

It will be the next development to start at Harwell and is in addition to the three million sq. ft of development already planned at the campus.

The next phase of growth is aimed at reducing the chronic shortage of lab space available across Oxfordshire and will see a combination of lab, office, and R&D buildings being built including the new Zeta building a 21,000sq ft ‘mid-tech’ development.

Darius Hughes, UK General Manager at Moderna, said: “We are delighted to reach this important milestone with Harwell and our lab build partners, Merit.

“We look forward to joining the Harwell Campus health tech cluster and contributing to the UK’s science and innovation community through investments in R&D. When constructed, our facility at Harwell will harness mRNA science to develop and deliver tailored, innovative vaccines to the UK public that address particular threats from respiratory viruses facing our population.”

Moderna committed to the scheme after the Government committed to buy respiratory infection vaccines for the NHS.