The new five-storey hospital, which will be the first specialist children's hospital for the East of England, will be based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Matt Allen, director of new hospital construction at Cambridge University Hospitals, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with Bouygues UK. This is a major milestone in the journey to deliver Cambridge Children's Hospital.

‘Bouygues UK is a first-class contractor with proven expertise in building and delivering excellent healthcare infrastructure within a collaborative environment. This makes them an ideal construction partner to deliver such an important project. 

‘Together we can now get straight down to work in finalising our design and plans and ensuring best value for money under an initial pre-construction services agreement.'

Spread over six floors, the hospital will include 108 inpatient beds, 16 paediatric intensive care beds, 42 day-case beds, seven operating theatres, imaging and diagnostics and a hospital school. A world-leading 5000 sqm research institute will be embedded, bringing University of Cambridge researchers and NHS clinicians together in one place, to create a collaborative and multi-disciplinary environment dedicated to improving the health of children and young people.

The hospital has been designed by Hawkins\Brown in partnership with White Arkitekter and Ramboll. Mace Consult is providing project management services on the project with EDGE leading on cost control.

Construction is expected to start within the next 18 months.