Plans for a new £35 million Science Teaching Hub at the University of Aberdeen have been given planning permission.

The new building dedicated to science laboratories will be situated just off St Machar Drive near the Fraser Noble building, student Hub and Sir Duncan Rice Library.

Featuring cutting edge facilities and flexible teaching laboratory space, the new facility has been designed by Reiach and Hall Architects to encourage collaboration between students from different disciplines.

Planners said the design of the development would make a “positive contribution” to the environment and provide a gateway site to the campus, while also providing further high quality educational facilities for the university.

Their decision notice added: “The proposal is considered to be a high-quality development befitting of the surrounding conservation area.”

Aberdeen University senior vice-principal, Professor Phil Hannaford, said: “We’re delighted to have been granted planning permission to build this fantastic new facility which will transform science teaching for students at the University of Aberdeen.

“As an institution, we have already outlined our commitment to invest heavily in our infrastructure so we continue to attract the brightest and best students from all over the world to the north-east of Scotland.”

The University hopes the building will be open and available for teaching in 2021.