‘Labs aren’t designed for people like me’

Two years ago Daisy Shearer left her role as a researcher in photonics and quantum sciences at the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey. She had loved the sciences since she was little, recognising the power of technology “to help people and help society”, and considered it an escape from other parts of her life that she found more difficult, like socialising with peers. When she was 21, she was diagnosed with autism.
Shearer, now 28, went on to pursue a master’s degree and was two years into a doctorate in quantum physics at Surrey when she quit laboratory-based research in 2022 to take a job as an outreach and engagement officer at the National Quantum Computing Centre.
There were many factors in her decision-making, among them the sense that laboratories “aren’t built with accessibility in mind, and that includes people with physical disabilities as well as neurodivergent people.
“I was finding that working within my role as a researcher wasn’t catering to my brain very well, both in the physical space but also in the more bureaucratic sense as well.” She set up a neurodiversity network for staff at her university, many of whom were working in lab-based roles. “I saw lots of people struggling around me and wanted to help.”
Shearer is one of a number of neurodivergent workers in the science and technology field who feel that laboratories are rarely designed with their needs in mind, according to new research from Advanced Research Clusters, which owns the Harwell science campus near Oxford, HOK, the architecture firm, and the University of West of England.
The research shows that just under half of people who work in laboratory settings identify as neurodivergent, with more than a quarter identifying as autistic, 25 times the national average. Despite this, laboratory settings frequently exacerbated symptoms, with neurodiverse employees reporting “over-stimulation” as a common side-effect of things such as poor-quality lighting, overcrowding and workspaces that are too noisy.
The findings come at a time of widespread reports of a shortage of laboratories and research and development facilities. A study published last summer by British Land and Savills, two of the country’s largest commercial property players, found that a shortage of lab space was hindering growth in the life sciences sector. It said that if growth among companies based in the “golden triangle” of London, Cambridge and Oxford was to increase to American levels, this would generate 67,000 more jobs and would add £4 billion to the economy.
Last year Knight Frank, another property company, calculated that businesses were looking for 2.2 million sq ft of laboratory space in the golden triangle in the three months between April and June. Yet there was only 385,000 sq ft of available space in that period, leaving a shortfall equivalent to 280 football pitches.
Some of that demand may be met thanks to a plan by the Crown Estate to spend £1.5 billion over the next decade building more laboratories nationwide. Announced in May, the estate said it would start by developing a former Debenhams store in Oxford city centre that had been empty for more than three years. Construction is due to start at the site next year, with the labs expected to be operational in 2027 or 2028.
British Land made headlines last year when it took the decision to take back a brand new office block in central London, which it had just spent £200 million refurbishing, and to turn it into lab space, for which it expected to get much higher rents.
• Property developers planning to get lab space down to a science
Canary Wharf, the east London business district, is also seeking to reposition itself as a “life sciences hub”. Europe’s largest commercial laboratory, 22 storeys high with an area of 823,000 sq ft and costing £500 million, is being built and is set to open in 2026.
Shearer said she hoped that some of the recommendations from the Advanced Research Clusters’ report, including prioritising natural light and quiet zones, would be implemented as the new lab space is built.
She said her autism meant that bright artificial lights and “larger labs with open space and lots of chatter”, as well as busy areas for writing up the results of research work, would make it hard for her to focus on the job at hand. “Sometimes you’re doing things in the lab like wiring — I sometimes describe doing wiring on nano devices as like working on the world’s tiniest sewing machine — that requires so much concentration.
“If your concentration is broken, for an autistic person it can take them several hours to get back to that level of concentration before the interruption. And with the high-stakes nature of research and academia, where you’re pressured to publish within a certain timescale, these things can have a really tangible impact and then a knock-on to mental wellbeing, as well.”
Shearer said that if new laboratories were not designed to cater to neurodiverse workers, companies risked losing them to companies better set up to deal with their needs. “If we don’t change the way that we set up our scientific workspaces and our lab spaces, we’re losing brilliant minds that could really help to push innovation and help us to solve these big problems.”
She said that designing labs in a way that worked for everybody, irrespective of individual needs, could be a good way to attract talent in a competitive marketplace. In 2021, the Institution of Engineering and Technology estimated that there was a shortfall of more than 173,000 workers in the Stem sector, an average of ten unfilled roles per business in the UK.
“Showing that you value these kinds of people is such a draw,” she said. “I think it could definitely swing me, even if the pay was slightly less, if I knew it was really inclusive and going to be easier for me to work in.”