page_title: Granta Park
hierarchical_section_title: Granta Park
caption_attribution_description: Lake at Granta Park near Cambridge (UK)
context_page_description: Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the River Granta in Great Abington near Cambridge, England.
  The first idea for the park came from the then Chief Executive of The Welding Institute Bevan Braithwaite OBE. He started negotiations in 1992 for an option to buy the key 87 acres of farm land, on which Granta Park is now built, and obtained the planning permission from South Cambridgeshire District Council, which laid down the basic concept for a high quality, low density, fully landscaped development. A design team comprising Latz+Partner, a leading German landscape design company and Eric Parry Architects developed the master plan for the park in consideration of ecological criteria with the aim of preserving and enhancing the existing rural landscape and ensuring the site would be easily accessible. A joint partnership was formed between TWI Ltd and MEPC plc, and Granta Park Ltd was created. MEPC, who at that time had already made a success of Milton Park in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, supported TWI professionally to turn Bevan Braithwaite's vision of a new Cambridge science and technology park into reality.
context_section_description: Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the River Granta in Great Abington near Cambridge, England.
  The first idea for the park came from the then Chief Executive of The Welding Institute (TWI Ltd) Bevan Braithwaite OBE. He started negotiations in 1992 for an option to buy the key 87 acres of farm land, on which Granta Park is now built, and obtained the planning permission from South Cambridgeshire District Council, which laid down the basic concept for a high quality, low density, fully landscaped development. A design team comprising Latz+Partner, a leading German landscape design company and Eric Parry Architects developed the master plan for the park in consideration of ecological criteria with the aim of preserving and enhancing the existing rural landscape and ensuring the site would be easily accessible. A joint partnership was formed between TWI Ltd and MEPC plc, and Granta Park Ltd was created. MEPC, who at that time had already made a success of Milton Park in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, supported TWI professionally to turn Bevan Braithwaite's vision of a new Cambridge science and technology park into reality.
  The new park began to take shape at Great Abington following a groundbreaking ceremony held at the end of 1997. Bevan Braithwaite, the Chief Executive of TWI Ltd, teamed-up with Councillor Shirley Saunders, Chairman of South Cambridgeshire County Council, and Gavin Davidson of MEPC plc to launch the building of a cluster of modern R&D facilities. Most of the key infrastructure was completed by summer 1998 with the development programme of the first Phase taking 5–7 years. Set around a cricket pitch and overlooking a new lake in the wooded grounds adjacent to Abington Hall, the buildings contain research facilities and business accommodation for several thousand staff.
  Granta Park provides not only new facilities for The Welding Institute's extensive R&D laboratories but also fulfils a need for purpose-built locations for the area's expanding biotech and technology sector. The following companies and other organisations are located there:
  Accelonix
  Alzheimer's Research UK
  Certis
  Colonix Medical
  Gilead
  Illumina
  Infomedia
  Inivata
  Intergence
  ista
  Keronite
  Lonza
  Lycotec
  Mary's Ltd
  MedImmune
  OneNucleus
  Origin Sciences
  Pfizer
  PPD
  TWI Ltd
  UCB Celltech
  Vernalis Research
caption: The Welding Institute on Granta Park near Cambridge UK
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-R1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2010:09:26 15:48:53", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "334", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-R1", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2010:09:26 15:48:53", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2778", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8748", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:09:26 15:48:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:09:26 15:48:53", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "47/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1296", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "864", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2572", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}