A research facility slated to start construction during late summer or early fall of 2005 received a $7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Friday.
The University of Wisconsin received the money to help build the cancer-research center from Health and Human Services Secretary and former governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson.
The grant came from an application in February to erect the complex. The money is to go for an area that will house 11 researchers studying prostate cancer.
The $120 million facility will be used for research and instruction of medical students. The complex will house facilities for image science, neuroscience, cancer research, cardiovascular research and a vivarium where students and researchers can study medical theories with animals. All these areas of research will be dedicated to finding medical understanding and hopefully new medical breakthroughs.
UW has already raised half of the money needed for the building, including funds from private donors and the state of Wisconsin under HealthStar, a program passed under Thompson’s term as governor.
The tower will be one of three buildings in the Interdisciplinary Research Complex and is the last stage of HealthStar.
The remainder of the money will be raised throughout the next two years from various sources — mostly private grants. UW is expected to seek approval sometime next year for the building from the state’s building commission to stay true to its timeline.
Medical School Dean Dr. Philip Farrell said he is excited about the new building and believes it is long overdue.
“We are about 15 years behind where we should be,” Dr. Farrell said. “Frankly, this is overdue and it’s about time that these projects get completed.”
Farrell also said a facility with a function similar to this one’s had been in the planning stages since the ’70s.
“We will get over $200 million for research this year, and we have an inadequate research area,” Farrell said.
Farrell revealed that the UW Medical School is often criticized for inadequate facilities in their reaccreditations reviews. He said that as far back as 1988, the school has been cited for partial non-compliance on instruction and research facilities in both quantity and quality. Farrell also said that the school was cited for the same reasons in 1995 and recently.
But with this new building and other medical centers, including the Health Sciences Learning Center, under construction on campus, Farrell said UW would come into compliance.
The IRC will be located northwest of UW hospital on the west end of campus and will be connected to the Waisman Center and the hospital.
