Oxford has attracted significant gifts in recent years from some of the world’s most powerful philanthropists. During 2025, some of these multi-million-pound donations will become physical buildings and working institutions.
Work is due to start shortly on the new Rata Tata centre at Somerville College in Oxford. The building, commemorating the late businessman, philanthropist and chairman of the Tata Group, will become the permanent home of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD), an Oxford-India partnership that brings different disciplines together to address sustainable development challenges in India.
The new building will occupy the last remaining plot of land available for development on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site, and will be sited opposite the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, a building created with the support of another philanthropist businessman. Due to open this spring, it will become a new home for Oxford humanities, and was made possible by gifts totalling £185 million – the largest donation in Oxford University’s history – from Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of global private equity firm Blackstone Group. The institute aims to demonstrate the essential role of the humanities in helping society confront and answer the fundamental questions of the 21st century. It will house Oxford’s humanities subjects – including English, history, languages, music, and philosophy – bringing them together for the first time, as well as offering a new space for the performing arts. The Schwarzman Centre will also be home to Oxford’s new Institute for Ethics in AI, which will lead the study of the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and other new computing technologies.
This year will also see the opening of the Life and Mind Building. This is a £200 million addition to the university’s biology and experimental psychology departments, funded and delivered by insurance company Legal & General. When building started in 2021 it was the largest building project the University has ever undertaken. In January 2025, the building was named by CNN in its list of architectural projects set to change the world. Thanks to a £100 million donation by Ineos, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, the Life and Mind building will house the Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research. Its aim is to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which currently causes an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths each year and could cause over 10 million deaths per year by 2050. The company’s founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe received the Sheldon Medal, Oxford University’s highest mark of distinction, on 5 February.
Meanwhile at Oxford Science Park, work is underway on the £1 billion Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) due to complete in 2027. The Oxford Campus of the institution originally founded in Los Angeles by Oracle founder Larry Ellison will offer 300,000 sq ft of research laboratories and an oncology and preventative care clinic. The new facility will support EIT’s partnership with the University of Oxford, announced in December 2024, to accelerate innovation and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. This has been backed by a minimum £130 million investment from EIT.
Each of these investors is interested in trying to solve some of the globe’s major challenges by supporting Oxfordshire’s world-leading research talent.
Image provided by University of Oxford