Behind the Door Of… International Centre for Life
Learn more about the pioneering science village as it celebrates its 25th birthday
It’s a landmark year for the International Centre for Life as the ground-breaking science village celebrates its 25th anniversary, so we met with its Chief Executive Linda Conlon to discuss its history, its importance in the city and its future.
Cast your mind back to the mid-1990s – if you’re old enough if, that is – and you might remember the site where International for Centre Life now stands looking a little different.
Once run-down and semi-derelict, the area as we now know it began to take shape in the late 90s, with Life officially opening its doors in 2000. A quarter of a century later and the Centre is so fully stitched into the fabric of Newcastle city centre that it’s hard to believe it hasn’t always been here – but how and why did it all begin?
As Linda Conlon – current Chief Executive and a member of the original Life team – explains the Centre came about thanks to funds from the Millennium Commission, a public body set up to give grants to projects celebrating the turn of the new millennium.
“It was tremendously exciting in the early days,” says Linda. “There was a lot of funding around at the time and the criteria was quite vague. It had to be ‘millennial’, whatever that means!”
“There was a few of us who got together to try and think about how we could capitalise on these funds, and we wanted something that was essentially of Newcastle and the North East,” she continues. “It had to be a good fit. It had to be rooted in what the North East was good at.”
Linda – together with fellow members of Life’s founding team including former Tyne and Wear development corporation chief executive Alastair Balls and leading, locally-born geneticist Professor Sir John Burn – turned their focus to genetic science which, while a relatively emerging field at the time, would allow them to capitalise on the existing pool of genetic talent within Newcastle University and the local NHS.
The vision was unique: a vibrant science hub combining research facilities, medical treatment and a visitor attraction that would bring together researchers, clinicians, educationalists and the general public in what Linda describes “a quest to help people live longer and healthier lives and to understand more about the science and technology that shapes the world we live in.”
Luckily, Linda and co had ex-Newcastle United chairman and MetroCentre founder Sir John Hall – who represented the North East on the Millennium Commission board and who Linda calls “a big, big champion” – on their side, and so the International Centre for Life was born.
The International Centre for Life has come along way in its 25 years too. In 2003, it became the first place in the UK to produce human embryonic stem cells and six years later in 2009 enjoyed a world-first when it became the first place on the planet to create human sperm from embryonic stem cells.
Its much-loved visitor attraction, Life Science Centre, has hosted major exhibitions including Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds Vital in 2014, and 6000 babies have been born as a result of treatments carried out at its NHS Fertility Centre. Nowadays, Life attracts around half a million visitors every year – whether they’re enjoying a day out at Life Science Centre, accessing its research and treatment facilities or enjoying the calendar of cultural events that take place in its outdoor area, Times Square.
But what International Centre for Life brings most to Newcastle, in Linda’s opinion, is a sense of place and a sense of pride.
“Not everybody knows what goes on here, but they’re all proud of Life,” she says. “They hear about the ground-breaking research and treatments here that benefit North East people and some of these breakthroughs have made international headlines. It’s not happening in London or in the States, but here in the North East of England, and I think people are proud of that.”
“They visit Life Science Centre where we hopefully help people to understand better how science and technology is shaping their lives,” she continues. “We’re right here in the middle of the city too – we’re not tucked away in a little periphery on a business park – and the buildings are quite striking. We make a bit of a statement!”
It’s clear that Linda is proud of Life and all it’s achieved over the past quarter of a century and she’s understandably hard-pressed to pick her proudest moment when asked – there have been so many, after all – but having the late Queen Elizabeth II officially open the Centre back in 2000 was definitely up there with them.
“That was the icing on the cake after all the hard work and energy that had gone into creating Centre for Life and finally getting it open,” says Linda. “I had the privilege of showing her around and explaining what it was all about and she was fascinated. She said ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere quite like this before’ which stayed with me. I was really, really proud of that.”
More recently, however, it’s Life’s work with autistic children and receiving a ‘Gold Plus Standard’ Autism Acceptance Award from the North East Autism Society that’s given Linda cause to be proud.
“We’ve worked with the society for about seven or eight years and created a science club with them specially for autistic kids and their families,” Linda explains. “It’s been a life-changing experience for many of those kids and it’s very powerful emotionally that they regard this place as welcoming and a place where they can be themselves. I’m really, really proud of that accolade.”
As the International Centre for Life celebrates its 25th birthday, 2025 has been year for taking stock of the past two and half decades and all the amazing work it’s done over that time. To that end, Life sought out testimonials from people who’ve been affected in some way by the Centre and as Linda explains, some truly inspirational and heartwarming stories came to light.
“There’s a lady called Anna Ritzema who visited Life as a child and credited that with sparking a love of science that led her to pursue a career in the field on the other side of the world,” says Linda. “She’s now an award-winning science teacher in Australia whose students have gone on to have STEM careers, including working at NASA.”
“There’s another woman called Ella-Joy Hunton who was born after her parents received IVF treatment here at Life,” she continues. “She’s also celebrating her 25th birthday this year and was inspired to complete her Masters in midwifery so now she’s helping bring a new generation of babies into the world.”
It’s obvious the positive impact that International Centre for Life has had on individuals, the local community and the wider science community since its founding, but milestones like a 25th anniversary are also a time to look to the future as well and Life shows no signs of slowing down.
In fact, Life recently marked its 25th birthday with a major £1.5 million investment in a new collection of immersive and interactive exhibits at Life Science Centre known as Light Box. Focusing on light, colour and sound, Light Box features a number of world-class exhibits including an interactive digital water display by BAFTA-winning games studio Preloaded and an 8-metre-high moving wave exhibit from the brain of internationally acclaimed artist Paul Friedlander.
That’s not all that Life has in store for us over the coming months either, as Linda explains.
“We’ve got debates looking at where life sciences and genetic sciences are going in the next decade or so and we’ve got a spotlight day when we bring in researchers and scientists from Newcastle University to come in and talk to the public about all the ground-breaking work that they’re doing,” she says. “That’s great for our visitors because they get to talk to scientists and it’s great for the scientists because they get to talk to the public – it’s a win-win all round!”
And as for what’s in store for the International Centre for Life over the next 25 years? Linda is reluctant to commit to a prediction but remains certain that Life will continue to play a central role in Newcastle and beyond.
“I think it’s virtually impossible to predict because we’re talking about science and technology, which is moving faster and faster all the time and I can’t see that pace slowing down,” Linda explains. “So, I think there’ll be an even great need for a place like this.”
“I firmly believe that even 25 years from now, people will still want to come to visitor attractions – not just science centres – but visitor attractions generally because fundamentally, we’re social animals and we want to meet with other social animals,” she concludes. “We want to get out of our normal day-to-day life and experience special moments with special people and I think that’s what the International Centre for Life does.”
Whether you’ve enjoyed a day out at Life Science Centre with the family, took a spin on Life’s festive ice-skating rink or been one of the thousands of people who’ve benefitted from the Centre’s cutting-edge research and treatment, there’s no denying that the International Centre for Life is an integral part of Newcastle and something we should all be proud of.
So, as the International Centre for Life marks its 25th anniversary, let’s embrace its mantra “science for all” and celebrate the amazing things it’s doing for Newcastle and beyond.
Main image: International Centre for Life panorama
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