According to a contract notice published to the Official Journal, the contractor beat five other firms to land the £22 million deal. 

The five-storey building is part of the masterplan for the development of the school of engineering estate on the King’s Buildings campus.

It will provide 6,500m sq metres of internal floor area. Around 85% will be office space for post-graduate and post-doctorate research assistants, meeting rooms, social and teaching space, while around 15% will be allocated to research and specialist teaching labs.

The university has a target occupation date of June 2022, though building work was due to start on site earlier this year and could be facing additional delays because of the ongoing ban on all but essential construction work in Scotland in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The design team, lead by BDP, quantity surveyor Currie & Brown and engineer Hoare Lea, have already been appointed, while a planning application has already been submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council.