Foster + Partners unveils plans for Oxford science campus and train station

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) campus, funded by American billionaire Larry Ellison, would feature both laboratories and office space at the Oxford Science Park on the outskirts of the city. Earlier this month, the science park announced that EIT had purchased part of its estate.

Fosters’ design for an expanded campus builds on plans submitted to Oxford City Council in January 2023 for a new cancer research facility and oncology clinic at the science park

This second phase of development encompasses land west of the science park and includes plans for a state-of-the-art auditorium, education and research spaces, and autonomous and purpose-built laboratories for generative biology, plant sciences, robotics and AI.

Fosters says the 190,000m2 campus masterplan includes leisure and catering facilities for up to 7,000 employees and that about 70 per cent of the park will be greenery.

The practice is also working on a new train station at Littlemore for the proposed reopening of the Cowley branch line announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday (23 October). The station sits within EIT’s planned campus extension.

Foster + Partners’ early vision for Littlemore station, Oxford (October 2025)

Reeves has pledged £120 million to restoring passenger services on the line into Oxford city centre for the first time in 60 years after a business case was made supported by 5th Studio, which worked with Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and Network Rail.

Separately, Network Rail is tendering for an architect to redevelop Oxford’s main railway station.

Fosters’ initial EIT scheme envisaged two sites containing laboratories, collaborative spaces, and public facilities, linked by a 250m timber walkway with a dome-shaped learning space called The Nest.

Work is underway on the partial retention of an existing 1902 hospital building, Littlemore House, which will contain an oncology clinic, a large auditorium and a public atrium looking out to a central courtyard garden.

The other building in the first phase, at Plot 18 of Oxford Science Park, is being raised from the ground and accessed from below. It will have extensive atrium space and be topped with a geodesic dome containing a library and featuring rotating shading.

5th Studio’s work for Oxford City Council on the Cowley branch line

Last week, EIT and Fosters secured planning permission for the restoration and reopening of the Grade II-listed pub The Eagle and Child in Oxford city centre, which was built around 1840 and rumoured to be a favourite of authors CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

The historic pub was purchased by EIT from St John”s College in October 2023.

The EIT campus will be built between Sandford-on-Thames and Littlemore, to the south of Oxford’s ring road – near Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium.

It would be the second Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. The first, in Los Angeles, was designed by US design firm RIOS.

Larry Ellison is founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corporation, a software company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with an annual income of £42 billion and a market capitalisation, or net value, of £240 billion.

The main campus buildings at EIT Oxford is set to open in 2027.

Foster + Partners’ approved The Eagle and Child pub (October 2025)