Our state-of-the-art facilities support a wide variety of ecological and evolutionary research. 

Imperial staff, students and visiting researchers are all welcome to use our facilities. We can also provide training and assist with designing your experiments.

Facilities 1

Aviary

Built in 2017, the aviaries have tracked house sparrows over generations, helping us to answer questions about the evolution of important social behaviours. Space is available contingent on relevant licenses for housing captive bird populations.

Controlled environment chambers and greenhouses

Our controlled-environment rooms, greenhouses, a Fitotron and smaller incubators, including chambers with temperature, humidity and light control, are used primarily for growing plants and insects.

Facilities 2

Grounds

Our grounds have a mosaic of natural and managed habitats including acid grassland, scrubland, woodlands, arable land, streams and a lake. The grounds host multiple long-term field experiments and global study sites.

Royal Society Wolfson Genomics Laboratory

This multi-user facility is fully equipped for standard molecular work (Containment level 2), including an Illumina MiSeqTM System for sequencing, PCR and post-PCR rooms, and other standard equipment. It was built in 2016 with funding from the Royal Society Wolfson Laboratory Refurbishment scheme.

Facilities 3

Microbiome suite

Built in 2025, this state-of-the-art facility is designed for work with Biosafety Category 2 microorganisms. Core equipment includes microbiological safety cabinets, fume hood, deionised water, and waste and media autoclaves.

Enquiries

For initial enquiries about the use of these facilities, please contact us below:

Aviary and Grounds:
Dr Catalina Estrada Montes - https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/c.estrada

Controlled Environments, Genomics Laboratory, Environmental Microbiology Laboratory:
Morgan Berrell - https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/m.berrell