The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) has awarded a contract for the new National Centre of excellence at Heriot-Watt Research Park in Edinburgh to a joint venture of Interserve and Kajima.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, and maintenance basis for a period of 25 years from the end of construction.  The contract sign is expected to take place at the end of July 2014, and work will start on site during the early autumn.  It is anticipated that the move to the National Centre will be completed in the spring of 2017.

The project is a 50:50 split between Interserve and Kajima who will both invest £1.87 million (US$3.12 million) in the project, which comprises the building of facilities for the processing and testing of blood, tissues and cells as well as research and development, quality and regulatory functions, plus offices and garages.

Alex Neil, Health Secretary, stated:

This new purpose-built facility will help to modernise the processing and testing of the blood which people across Scotland are donating to help others, and will help to ensure the future supply of blood, tissues and cells for all patients

The project is part of the Scottish Government's £750 million pipeline of infrastructure health projects and is being procured under the Scottish Government's Non Profit Distributing (NPD) model, managed by the Scottish Futures Trust.