August 14, 2025 | BOMA International, Ella Krygiel
The life sciences sector has seen a significant transformation over the past couple of years. With job cuts and tighter funding impacting project planning, the industry has needed to think strategically for how to forge ahead. A Cushman & Wakefield Life Sciences report aligns with this view, finding that while the life sciences sector continues to face challenges impacting space demand, there are viable signs of recovery (in areas such as net absorption improving) to suggest long-term growth potential.
Among lab spaces themselves, life science leaders analyzed the most important drivers shaping their design and what is needed to not only stay adaptable but retain their employees that work there too. A recent Unispace Life Sciences report determined these findings by exploring the perspectives of 400 senior and mid-level decision-makers across the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, Switzerland, and India, spanning biotechnology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and medical technology. Here to talk about this report in more detail and future expectations for the life sciences sector is Alicia Inman, Principal, Life Sciences, Americas, Unispace. Read her insights below to learn more:
The ROI Reality Check for Life Sciences Facilities
The Unispace survey shows U.S. life science executives are confident in their current lab capabilities, yet 52% express concern about ROI on new facilities. Inman shares how she sees this tension playing out in the current market: “The challenge lies in the upfront costs of newer facilities with adaptable utility systems: power, gases, and dedicated exhaust points. But you must also consider future modification costs for fixed systems, including direct renovation expenses and indirect costs like taking labs out of service, which means expensive equipment sitting idle and lost research hours.”
Despite these cost pressures, companies aren’t abandoning their facility investments. Instead, with nearly half of life science leaders citing innovation as their top real estate priority, according to the JLL Future of Work Survey, they’re seeking facilities that can justify their investment by actually lowering operational costs over time. Inman points out another pattern we can expect to see: “In the current market, tenants are choosing smaller lab spaces with higher built-in adaptability, expanding later if needed. There’s also a trend toward outsourcing testing and material supply that was previously handled in-house.”
Designing for Adaptability in the Modern Lab
As Inman pointed out, “adaptable” is a key word for what we can continue to expect in future lab designs. According to the Unispace survey, U.S. labs are more likely to cite “flexible, modular spaces” as a key driver shaping lab design, with 61% of US executives identifying this as a critical driver compared to 53% of their global counterparts.
Inman echoes this perspective but highlights the growth of technology on lab design: “Automated systems and advanced data analytics are now taking on up to 80 percent of the repetitive, manual benchtop work, which frees scientists to focus their time and energy on the 20 percent that drives true innovation, developing new research, solutions and products. This shift is influencing facility planning in two major ways:
- First, by reducing the footprint needed for traditional bench space.
- Second, by creating more agile, flexible zones that support collaboration, creativity and problem solving.”
This vision of flexible, technology-driven labs is gaining support across the industry. Gensler identifies the modular lab as one of the most revolutionary approaches, enabling teams to customize workstations through movable partitions for open or private spaces as needed. They also predict virtual labs will be game-changing, with AI and machine learning automating tasks so scientists can focus on innovation.
As Inman explains: “Labs are now being designed as dynamic environments that merge advanced automation with flexible settings for innovative R+D. Additionally, labs are incorporating more multifunctional spaces allowing for more cross-disciplinary interaction.”
Essential Trends Shaping Life Sciences Real Estate
The life sciences real estate landscape is fundamentally shifting toward adaptability and future-proofing. Beyond the modular designs and AI integration we’ve discussed, considerations like green architecture and human-centered design will influence labs by 2030, according to Genie Scientific.
For Inman and her team, this means taking a comprehensive approach: “We’re planning for overhead service panels, upsized HVAC capacity and expandable infrastructure so labs can integrate new machines, robotics and testing capabilities as needs evolve.”
When asked what CRE professionals should understand when serving the life sciences sector, Inman emphasizes the importance of forward-thinking development: “In ground-up developments, we’re asking developers to integrate accessible vertical shafts and utility pathways that make infrastructure upgrades possible without major disruption. The most competitive facilities combine adaptability and operational efficiency with the physical capacity to grow and change over time.”
Interested in more content like this? Read our recent articles, Four Perspectives on the Senior Care Crisis or Pharma’s Onshoring Movement. You can view all this content and more when you click here to sign up for our Medical newsletter!