08 Nov UW Board of Regents approves $134 million medical research facility
Madison, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison Board of Regents has approved construction of a new medical research facility to be built near UW Hospital and Clinics and the Waisman Center. The project, expected to be completed in spring 2008, awaits approval from the State Building Commission on November 17.
The first phase of the project will include laboratory facilities, offices, an imaging center and animal quarters. The facility is designed to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to medical research.
“This project will enable medical research facilities, now scattered around the campus in aging and inadequate facilities, to consolidate near the hospital and Waisman Center,” Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Fish said in a statement. In addition, its proximity to UW Hospitals and Clinics will smooth the process of transferring basic science discoveries to clinical applications.
The $133.9 million center is the final phase of the 1997 Healthstar initiative, which was created to address health-care research and instructional needs of the 21st century, Fish said. The other facilities included in the initiative were the Rennebohm Pharmacy Building and the Health Sciences Learning Center, both of which are complete.
The project will be funded with $110.5 million in gifts and grants and $23.4 million in general fund-supported borrowing. More than $80 million has been raised for the project, including $18 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health.