Science companies have continued to work in the lab through the pandemic, but have learned new ways of working outside the lab. The paper lab notebook may finally have run its course in favor of the electronic lab notebook. Many routine preparatory, analytical, and documentation tasks are being supported remotely, with the opportunity for AI to streamline processes and setups. While IoT and web access to experiments have been slow to mainstream, there has been increased interest in new ways of resourcing, monitoring, and improving the efficiency of R&D labs.

Social distancing, shift work, and reductions in density have highlighted the important role of the R&D center as an innovation hub and connector of people. Scientists have learned how to deliver work remotely, particularly for focused tasks. Scientific workers miss the unstructured collaboration, socialization, and tacit learning that occurs from being in the lab and in-person interactions with colleagues. These things don’t happen as intuitively or effectively remotely, or even at partial occupancy under a hybrid model.

For science organizations in prime markets, a shortage of available research-capable space is driving building owners and developers to convert non-lab space into facilities that can support R&D activities. These facilities are most often in urban cores close to scientific talent, capital, and infrastructure. By colocating live-work amenities with academic institutions, health systems, and R&D, these developments help create an ecosystem for growing scientific ideas into impactful therapies and technologies.

Speed to market is as applicable to building stock as it is to advancing drugs. When a company is in growth mode, technical space cannot be built out fast enough to meet that need. New real estate models and leasing structures are emerging to respond to the growth curves of science companies. By the time an early-stage science company needs the space, it has to be move-in ready. This is highlighted by most major markets having single-digit vacancy rates for lab facilities.

As scientists continue to translate or observe the complicated and disparate interactions of a global economy into rising carbon emissions, they are not leaving their anthropogenic impact out of the equation as we race to solve the climate crisis. Carbon emissions from energy consumption in research buildings dwarfs the typical office building by a factor of five or more, making it increasingly difficult for these facilities to meet the aggressive energy conservation targets sweeping across most countries. One way to address this is to tackle the up-front carbon that dominates the construction of new buildings by repositioning discarded structures for retrofit.