The area near St Pancras International in the St Pancras area of London (London Borough of Camden). Not far from the British Library. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick_Institute" rel="nofollow">Francis Crick Institute</a> - Midland Road, London. The Francis Crick Institute (formerly the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation) is a biomedical research centre in London, which opened in 2016. The institute is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Imperial College London, King's College London (KCL), the Medical Research Council, University College London (UCL) and the Wellcome Trust. The institute is planned to have 1,500 staff, including 1,250 scientists, and an annual budget of over £100 million, making it the biggest single biomedical laboratory in Europe. The institute is named after the British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. Unofficially, the Crick has been called Sir Paul's Cathedral, a reference to Sir Paul Nurse and St Paul's Cathedral in London. The Francis Crick Institute is located in a new state-of-the-art building built next to St Pancras International railway station in the Camden area of Central London. It consists of four reinforced concrete blocks up to eight storeys high plus four basement levels. The total internal floor area is 82,578m2 including 29,179m2 of laboratories with 4km of laboratory benching and 21,839m2 of associated write up space. In July 2008 Arup Project Management, who had previously been involved in site evaluation studies, were appointed by the client UKCMRI as project manager for the Institute’s chosen location at Brill Place. In August the full professional team was appointed, including architect and lead designer HOK, AKT II (structural engineer), Arup (building services engineering) and Turner & Townsend (cost managers). In 2010 PLP Architecture was appointed to collaborate with HOK on the building’s external envelope and BMJ architects were retained as a biological research facilities consultant. Following planning approval by Camden in December 2010, Laing O'Rourke was appointed as main contractor in March 2011. Construction began in July 2011 and reached practical completion on time and within budget in August 2016, with researchers starting work in the new building in September. The construction cost was £465 million and including fit-out of the building the capital cost of the project has been approximately £700 million. When it is fully occupied and operational, in early 2017, the Francis Crick Institute will employ 1500 staff, including 1250 scientists, and have an operating budget of approximately £130 million a year. As well as state of the art scientific equipment, much of it extremely sensitive to vibration and electromagnetic emissions, and requiring advanced methods of air handling, over a third of the building is given over to plant rooms and services distribution. The facility incorporates a combined heat and power plant in order to provide low-carbon onsite power. Solar panels installed in the roof provide extra renewable power and all light fittings are energy-efficient. The roof also hides the heating and cooling units. A third of the building is below ground-level to reduce its visible size and provide further protection to sensitive equipment. Labs within the building are arranged over four floors, made up of four interconnected blocks, designed to encourage interaction between scientists working in different research fields. The institute also includes a public exhibition/gallery space, an educational space, a 450-seat auditorium and a community facility.