That's becoming the norm across Europe. In Starlab's 2026 survey of 368 lab staff in six countries, 44% named insufficient funding as their biggest problem, and 74% said they were cutting spend on equipment and infrastructure (SelectScience). When budgets are tight, relocating to a new building is rarely the first option. Making the existing lab work harder usually is.

The catch is that an operational lab is one of the hardest places to build. Containment has to hold. Services have to stay on. Samples, instruments and the people using them have to keep working while walls come down around them.

Why live upgrades are different

On a new build, the risks are mostly about cost and programme. On a live lab, there's a third risk: the work that's already happening inside. A ventilation shutdown that runs a day long can stop research. Dust in the wrong corridor can compromise a containment zone. A cleanroom that loses its classification has to be requalified before it can be used again. That's why the upgrade itself is only half the job. The other half is protecting everything around it, from the first survey to the day the new space is handed back.

Start with how the lab runs

A live upgrade has to be planned around the science. That means understanding which rooms can close and when, which equipment can move and which can't, and where the critical services run. As our Technical Associate Dominic Weston puts it, "Building drawings tell one story. What we find on site often tells another." Surveying the building as it is today is what makes everything else possible.

Phase the work so the lab keeps working

Most live upgrades are delivered in stages. One zone is decanted and upgraded while the rest carries on, then the next follows. Getting that sequence right is where most of the planning goes. Good phasing works out where teams and equipment move to while their space is closed. It plans service shutdowns for the quietest windows, and agrees them with the people they affect. It keeps clean and dirty routes separate, so construction never crosses a controlled area.

Design containment and compliance in from the start

In a cleanroom, a GMP suite or a CL2 lab, compliance can't be added at the end. Air pressure regimes, filtration, access control and waste routes all have to be maintained through every phase. That's also why validation needs to be planned early. If a space must be requalified before it reopens, the testing, documentation and sign-off sit on the programme from day dot, not as a surprise at the end.

Agree the brief before anything is designed

An upgrade touches more people than a new build. Scientists, facilities teams, quality, health and safety, and finance all have a stake in how the work is phased and what changes. Their priorities rarely line up on their own. The brief is where they get aligned. Our De-risking the brief guide sets out what a clear, agreed brief should cover before design begins.

One team, from survey to handover

The more complex the building, the more it helps to have one team accountable for all of it. When architecture, engineering and construction work from the same plan, the phasing, the services and the compliance requirements are solved together. On a live lab, those decisions decide whether the science keeps running.

Planning an upgrade?

Inuti is a global design and engineering firm delivering advanced facilities for science, with over 60 years of experience and 712,000+ sq ft delivered. We work with a range of sectors at every stage of growth, across the UK and beyond.

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