What is Project North Park?
Project North Park will deliver a world class research and teaching facility for everyone to use.
The building represents one of the University’s most significant investments and will facilitate the generation of new knowledge and research techniques, alongside the growth of our partnerships - regionally, nationally and internationally. It will also enable the University to deliver a vision of future learning at Exeter, through digitally-enabled, research inspired teaching to support the next generation of distinguished graduates.
This investment will enable the University to increase our research power and demonstrate long-lasting impact to enhance our competitiveness globally and into the future.
Our vision for the building
This will be a vibrant, open facility for all to use with enhanced education facilities to support innovative teaching, develop new partnerships, and extend public engagement.
Communities within the building - institutes, research groups and students, whether permanent or temporary - will be freely able to mix and inspire each other with the building acting as a centre for stimulating interdisciplinary activity across all campuses. This will be extended by the open design of the building and by employing the latest digital technology to enable engagement on a global scale.
The building will house research offices and space, centrally bookable teaching rooms, open space for events and exhibitions, and student study space that will sit alongside catering and self-service facilities. There will also be a strong theme of arts and culture with space to support activities that encourage engagement with the research and teaching themes across the University. This will offer a place of engagement for our wider external communities enabling the University to play a leading role in the social, cultural and economic life of the area.
Who is going to be based in the building?
The building will bring together institutes and research groups to work collaboratively, delivering innovative research methods and driving ground-breaking research.
Data and data science will be at the heart of driving innovation in analytical approaches, and research will also explore the interface between Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) and Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) perspectives to determine how we collectively enrich our understanding of global challenges.
The institutes and research groups that will be located in the building are the Global Systems Institute (GSI), the Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI), the Humanities Research Institute (HRI), the Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW), Astrophysics and Q-Step.
Where is the building going to be built?
The new building will be constructed on the existing Car Park D on our Streatham campus. The car parking capacity in Car Park D will be relocated to Car Park B which will be extended so that no spaces are lost. Find out more on the car parking pages.
It will have a significant role, not just in terms of the academic work of the institution - although it will be extremely important there - but also working towards greater public engagament, making the University what it really should be, which is a space not just for the University itself but for the much wider community.
Professor Andrew Thorpe
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean, College of Humanities