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We have a vision to significantly enhance research and education facilities on the Penryn Campus, expanding our pioneering and globally-recognised research and teaching, focused on shaping a sustainable future.  
  
Our goal is for our Penryn Campus to have a global reputation of expertise in sustainability, where we deliver practical solutions to create a just and sustainable future and solve world-wide environmental issues.  

Penryn 2.0 aims to enhance our existing infrastructure on campus to build on strengths in research excellence and the potential for student growth in Cornwall.  Our revised approach provides a substantially more cost-effective and more sustainable lower-carbon solution than our original new-build plan, enabling us to deliver significant improvements to research and education facilities. The project will embrace learnings from recent refurbishment capital projects (including Accelerating Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (ADA) developments in Innovation Centre 2, Streatham Campus), to create flexible, modern and sustainable working and learning spaces that encourage collaboration and future growth. 

In February 2026 the University Council approved the project, with the first phase due to commence in the spring. Further phases of refurbishment are expected to begin in the autumn and into 2027, subject to change.  

The first phase of the project will focus on the co-location of the Business School with Law in the Peter Lanyon building, creating an improved staff and student space, and the enhancement of research facilities. 

Relocating the Business School from the Science and Engineering Research Support Facility (SERSF) to the ground floor of the Peter Lanyon building will allow us to reimagine and grow the Business School, bringing it together with Law to support collaboration and innovation, alongside a clearer sense of identity and community for staff and students. The space released in SERSF will be repurposed to provide professional services and academic work areas, along with flexible meeting space accessible to all campus users. 

The development of a new Centre for Microbiology and Planetary Health will increase capacity to deliver world-class research in microbial, ecological, and mining sciences. Refurbishment of the Mass Spectrometry Lab within the Daphne Du Maurier (DDM) building, the creation of a new Cold Storage Archive and the refurbishment of the Field Equipment Hub, will create more storage space and free up useable spaces within labs. 

Penryn 2.0 is fundamental to the successful delivery of Strategy 2030 in Cornwall and further building our reputation for sustainability, research excellence and student experience.  Additional planned works include refurbishing our teaching laboratory facilities to accommodate larger student cohorts and enhance the student experience in the spaces, alongside the expansion of flexible learning space within the Postgraduate Suite to meet the needs of the Graduate School of Environment and Sustainability. 

We will share more as the project develops.