UK Biocentre has retained an Investors in People accreditation, three years after we first achieved the standard. This was our first full reassessment since that original award.
We employ around 125 people at our purpose-built laboratories at Java Park in Tilbrook, Milton Keynes, supporting national research programmes including Our Future Health, the NIHR BioResource and Genomics England through our sample storage, processing and management work.
The past six years have brought a great deal of change for us, and assessors noted real improvement across the business over that period. In March 2020, we became the UK's first lighthouse laboratory for NHS Test and Trace. Within a year we had grown from a specialist laboratory into an operation running around the clock with 1,500 people, processing 31.7 million Covid-19 samples and peaking at 126,000 a day.
We first achieved Investors in People accreditation in August 2023, as we returned to our pre-pandemic scale. In March 2026 we were acquired by Azenta UK Ltd, part of Azenta, Inc, and we continue to operate under the UK Biocentre name from our Milton Keynes site, with our existing leadership team in place.
Investors in People reassesses organisations independently every three years, and we had to show that we still meet the standard across the business.
Our HR Director, Linda Dunbar Bassett, led the reaccreditation with our HR team, managing the submission and coordinating the assessment across the organisation.
Linda said: "I am delighted that we have successfully retained our Investors in People accreditation following our recent reaccreditation assessment.
"This is a significant achievement and a testament to the commitment, dedication and hard work of our colleagues across the organisation. We are incredibly proud of this outcome and look forward to building on this success over the next three years.
"Not only does the accreditation support our continued growth and development, but it also demonstrates to our customers our ongoing commitment to investing in our people, something they see as a real positive and an important mark of quality."
Dr Tony Cox OBE, said: "This business has seen some significant change over the past six years and retaining this Investors in People standard throughout that says a great deal about our values and the commitment of the people here."
Investors in People is an independent standard for people management used by organisations in more than 70 countries. It assesses nine performance indicators covering how an organisation leads, supports and improves its people, and accreditation lasts three years before reassessment.
Back to Blog