(4 Aug 2011)
Work has started on the new £50m Oxford University Mathematical Institute following the appointment of Laing O'Rourke as main contractor earlier this month.

Senior members of the University and the Laing O'Rourke team joined representatives from the local community to celebrate the winning formula at a traditional groundbreaking ceremony on site this week.

The development represents a landmark step in mathematics at Oxford University, bringing together researchers from three separate buildings into a single dedicated faculty. The new Institute building will be the main workplace for more than 500 academics and support staff, as well as the focus of academic life for around 900 undergraduates and a diverse community of college research fellows and lecturers. The building will provide more than 300 offices in a range of sizes in addition to teaching and seminar spaces, meeting rooms and a large departmental common room.

Due to be completed in September 2013, the Institute will be one of the first new buildings on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter - the University’s largest building project in more than a century.