A university has announced plans to expand on its Cornwall campus with a new three-storey building for research and teaching.

The University of Exeter said it was planning a “huge investment” on the Penryn Campus, which it shares with Falmouth University.

It is proposing a new building that would include a new lecture theatre to increase capacity for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

The facility would also include specialist, state-of-the-art laboratories and a working space designed around collaboration, to help provide new programmes focused on future sustainable skills and build on its existing programmes across all three of its faculties.

The university said: “The increased laboratory space would allow our Microbiology Research Group to substantially grow its environmental and human health areas of research, to train the next generation of environmentalists and to engage further with businesses.”

Currently in the design phase, the new three-storey facility is described as “fundamental” to the university’s 2030 ambition to “grow our research, education and partnership activities in Cornwall.”

Professor Martin Siegert, deputy vice chancellor, said: “Our goal is for our Penryn Campus to have a global reputation of expertise in sustainability, where we deliver practical solutions to create a just and sustainable future and solve worldwide environmental issues.  “The new space will allow our team to substantially grow environmental and human health areas of research, to train the next generation of environmentalists and to engage further with businesses and partners within the south west region and globally.  “This will put Penryn on the map as an international hub for net zero, clean growth and nature recovery research and teaching.”

The university has promised sustainability and reducing carbon emissions will be at the forefront of the design for the new building, with an ambition to achieve Passivhaus status (built to maintain an almost constant temperature).

The next stage of the project will be to fully design the new facility, with a view to starting construction in summer 2024, and completing it by winter 2025/26 (dates subject to change).  To find out more and for regular updates on the project visit www.exeter.ac.uk/penryn2.0