University officials said Tuesday the construction of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is on track for completion in December 2010.
“It’s going great. The building is on schedule and on budget, and everything is going well,” said John Wiley, former chancellor and current interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
The building is currently under construction at the 1300 block of University Avenue. The completed project will house facilities for WID and the Morgridge Institute for Research, a private, non-profit organization.
Wiley and Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, presented updates on the project to the Wisconsin Innovation Network.
Wiley spoke on the construction progress of the building and gave an update on the development of the research program the building will house, according to Wisconsin Technology Council President and event moderator Tom Still.
“It was a valuable update,” Still said. “I think Wisconsin is well on its way to having one of the most unique facilities in the country. The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery will be unlike anything else in the Midwest and on par with anything else you can find in the country.”
Wiley also gave an update on the search for research themes within WID, which were recently narrowed to include 12 pre-proposals. Five final proposals will be given a place at WID in the coming months, according to Wiley.
He said information technologies, biotechnologies and nanotechnologies are the most influential technologies of our time, and WID’s goal will be to bring these three together to foster the most effective research.
“There’s no other university that is as far along as we are. [WID] is going to keep us among the top five research universities in the nation,” Wiley said.
Gulbrandsen presented an update on MIR, which will make up the private half of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
He also spoke on the architectural advantages of the building, according to WARF spokesperson Janet Kelly.
“The whole purpose of this facility is really to connect the sciences to advance human health,” Kelly said. “Science has become so complex today that only by working together will researchers be able to make major leaps forward in discoveries. The building has been built … to really promote and facilitate collaboration across the scientific disciplines.”
Kelly said a restaurant, a coffee shop, interactive displays and daily programming will aid connections between researchers in the building, along with a main floor that will operate as the “town center.”
While the building will be fully completed in December 2010, the structure is slated for completion this April when the top floor will be finished.
Construction will then move on to the interior.
“[The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery] leverage the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s strengths in interdisciplinary research and is going to allow us to attract researchers and others not only from around the nation but around the world,” Still said. “This is a very timely and comprehensive addition to the research base at the university.”
