The scientific workplace of the future

Abstract

The paper introduces the changing nature of corporate research and development programmes and describes how these changes are impacting the scientific workplace. Providing the right research environments at an affordable cost is a critical challenge for real estate organisations tasked with providing scientific workplaces that promote innovation, knowledge transfer, collaboration and effectiveness. The paper examines what behavioural science can teach organisations about human performance, health and wellbeing and how these factors impact workplace design. Workplace solutions for the next generation of researchers must accommodate a more mobile workforce, new models of collaboration, emerging technology and sustainable design goals. The authors suggest specific workplace strategies that can help science organisations address human behaviour, changes in work patterns, resource scarcity and global performance pressures. Like the practice of science itself, the formula for creating the ideal scientific workplace that helps organisations focus on research continues to evolve. Testing new workplace ideas, measuring outcomes and making improvements over time can transform the workplace as well as the research it supports. Considering the office, traditional laboratory and all the workspaces in-between, a giant laboratory for new ideas, processes and technologies is appropriate — and perhaps essential — for advancing science.