The 8th October 2014 realised the achievement of financial close and was a significant milestone in the creation of a purpose-built National Centre for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), part of NHS National Services Scotland.  This will be the newest, most modern blood centre in Europe, the last to be built / opened was Banc de Sang I Teixits de Catalunya in Barcelona in 2008.

Construction started on the 21st October and a week later, the Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon attended the new National Centre site at the Heriot-Watt Campus to undertake a turf cutting ceremony.

Since the start of construction good progress has been made on the following:

• Topsoil strip nearly complete
• Cut and fill operations ongoing
• Service vehicle access road, first 180m has been laid to base course
• Piling is complete, static tests complete, integrity testing ongoing
• Surface water drainage progressing
• 35% piles cropped
• Pile cap concreting has commence with Stair core 3