A world-class medical science centre is being planned for central London. The Times

The government’s Medical Research Council (MRC) has joined forces with the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and University College, London (UCL) to develop the £350m British Library International Science Site (Bliss) on a 3½acre site near the British Library and St Pancras station.

The plan for the largest laboratory of its kind in the world, depends on a successful bid for the site, valued at at least £28m, which the government is selling. The consortium has made it to the final round of bidding and will learn within weeks whether it has won.

The Bliss campus would become the new home of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), which the MRC has controversially decided to move from north to central London.

Cancer Research UK also plans to move its laboratory from Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

It is believed that the Bliss bid is not the highest and that some exceeded £50m. However, the government is not obliged to sell to the highest bidder, only to get ‘best value’ for the taxpayer.