April 2025 marked a significant milestone at the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC). It has now been two years since construction began on the main building and, reflecting on that time, we have made remarkable progress.

With the structure and external cladding of the striking 38,000m2 building complete, it is fantastic to see it developing so quickly. This new building will be transformative for the University and city, providing a flexible and inclusive shared space to learn and discover.
Over the past two years the surrounding campus has also continued to come to life. The Bristol Dental School and TQ Coal Sheds on Avon Street are fully operational, bringing innovative facilities for education, research and skills development to the region. Nearby, OMX, the new incubator in partnership with Science Creates, is due to open this year and will add to our impressive portfolio of innovation services in the area.
The development of TQEC is also having far-reaching impacts across the city, generating opportunities for us to work with more partners and integrating with local communities and industries. In South Bristol, the fit-out of the new micro-campus is progressing well and will be ready to open soon, connecting with the Barton Hill Micro-campus, which will celebrate its five-year anniversary later this year.
This excellent progress is testament to the outstanding effort and dedication of so many teams across – and beyond – the University, working together to keep us on track for opening in September 2026.
Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost
Highlights from TQEC Programme Director

This month, we captured the first shots for a video tour of our new building. Hosted by Head of Campus Planning, Rob Gregory, the tour will give viewers a snapshot of the main spaces, helping staff become familiar with their new working location and promoting the campus to existing and potential partners, visitors and students. We’re now working through the edit and look forward to sharing the film with you soon!
Over at The Sheds It was great to see the pioneering research facilities in action. Some of the TQ Team went along to help with testing the innovative monitoring devices in the Smart Cinema in April. Brainwaves, heart rates and more were monitored while listening to different genres of music, from the Dune soundtrack to Beyonce. Coming up in May, participants can take part in a similar session as part of the ‘Flow’ project with Real World Studios and Adrian Utley from the band Portishead. Find out more from MyWorld.
Charting Change with local communities
April has been a busy month for the Charting Change public art commission. Led by Ellie Shipman and supported by Programme Artist Jack Stiling, a series of events and workshops have seen local communities and students engaging with the public art programme and TQEC development. Ellie is developing a permanent textile artwork consisting of woven panels which will be informed by the conversations, research and workshops throughout the commission and will be installed in the Story Exchange, a public space in the main building.

The regular Little Library at the Barton Hill Micro-campus was taken over by Charting Change on 15 April, hosting ‘Girls Build Amazing Things’. This interactive workshop invited local children and their families to explore how women and girls build, engineer and shape the world around us through building their own mini sculptures out of miniature bricks and looking at a range of reading materials about influential women in the industry. The University’s Senior Architect, Claire White-Sharman, also came along to support the activities and talk about her career.
Later in April, local Somali elders’ group Ayeeyo and Awoowo were invited to visit Dash and Miller and Bristol Weaving Mill with Ellie to exchange learning around weaving techniques and see the looms which will weave the public artwork. They also visited our Botanic Garden to explore some of the plants growing there that are used in weaving processes.
Finally, Ellie gave a talk about the role of public art in regeneration to local A-Level Geography students who are studying the regeneration and sustainability of Temple Quarter as part of their curriculum. This was delivered in partnership with the School of Education, and the artists will be inviting more students to get involved with the commission over the Summer term.
This range of activities represents the diverse stories that are being explored as part of this commission, and we can’t wait to see how this feeds into the final artwork. Follow along with the public art programme on the University’s Public Art Instagram account: @bristol_uni_publicart
Creating space for the innovators of tomorrow
The world and workplace are constantly evolving. TQEC will respond by ensuring students are equipped with the interdisciplinary skills, strong networks and real-world experiences to succeed once they graduate. Through closer links with industry, we’re providing a dynamic space where students can learn from industry expertise, and businesses have the opportunity to work with our talented students.

On 8 April, the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CfIE) held the Innovation Showcase at the Watershed. The showcase provided a platform for final-year students to present their final projects among entrepreneurs and investors. Seven amazing student startups also won a share of a £72,000 funding pot for their projects in the Runway Awards.
Throughout the day, students demonstrated their ability to tackle challenges comprehensively, translating what they learn from teaching into practical applications. From social inclusion and sustainability to wellbeing and emerging technologies, the students showcased a diverse array of innovations, with each project, pitch and talk reflecting the power of working across disciplines.
The new campus will continue to build on this challenge-led learning model and we’re looking forward to TQEC becoming the venue for more events like this soon!
Foresight Live begins
Bristol Innovations, the University of Bristol’s catalyst for innovation, will be based in the main building on our new campus when it opens in 2026. But the Bristol Innovations team are already bringing business leaders, innovators, investors and researchers together to explore the big questions in emerging technologies and what that means for us as a society.

A new live event series has launched as part of the digital publication, Foresight. The first event in ‘The Convergence of Critical Technologies’ was focused on quantum tech and took place on 3 April. It hosted leaders from BT and local spinout KETS Quantum Security, who have recently made headlines with their design of a commercially viable system to protect telecommunications from quantum computer hackers. Together with academics and business leaders, they discussed the challenges and opportunities driving innovation in quantum, exploring real-world applications, emerging trends and pathways to collaboration.
Read a summary of the discussion or watch the full recording.
The event took place in the new Bristol Innovations Zone at Engine Shed, which will also be used to preview the types of activities Bristol Innovations will be running in TQEC. It’s also the venue for the next event in the series, The Convergence of Critical Technologies in AI and Telecoms on 12 June.
Campus development
With two years since construction began, the programme remains on schedule. There are over 500 people currently on site per day and over 800,000 person hours have been worked to date.
On the roof, steelwork has been installed to house over 750 solar panels, which will provide an annual yield of c320,000 kWh, enough to power the equivalent of 120 homes. Installation of roof level air handling units, extract fans, ductwork, pipe work and electrical containment is progressing well. The green roof has also commenced, which will provide natural habitats for wildlife and increased biodiversity.
Internally, the 28,000m2 of raised access flooring (over 75,000 floor tiles) is underway. Wall construction, plastering, and decorations are continuing to all floor levels and the main incoming high-voltage power from the National Grid is now live.
External landscaping works are progressing with external retaining walls being completed following the removal of the first two tower cranes.
University of Bristol students have also visited the site this month as part of the Industrial Mentoring Scheme.