The University of Kentucky’s $265 million multidisciplinary research building has moved one step closer to fruition, as the state General Assembly and Gov. Steve Beshear approved $132.5 million in state bonds for the project.
The other half of the required cost for the new building, which would be located near the university’s biopharm and biological biomedical research buildings, will be funded by UK through research contracts and private fundraising.
The aim of the new facility, according to UK President Eli Capilouto, will be to bring researchers together from across the campus, along with those who bring expertise from other disciplines, to address challenging issues for the state — particularly the health disparities and preventable deaths that affect Kentucky disproportionately.
“This is going to be an eclectic building,” Capilouto said in a statement on the state’s approval of funding for the project. “It’s where we are going to bring all these different disciplines together, this myriad of talent that you have to apply to tackle the problems that have stubbornly stymied the Commonwealth. ... We are one of only a handful of universities that has on a contiguous campus this array of disciplines that need to be brought to bear on these problems.”
"I’m heartened by the legislature’s support of a major investment in UK’s planned medical research facility, which will focus its work on reducing Kentucky's unacceptably high rates of preventable diseases and deaths,” Beshear said. “The facility will complement the lifesaving efforts at Markey Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute. Finally, this medical research facility will attract world-class researchers to target rapid improvements in Kentucky's collective health.”
Capilouto has also emphasized the new facility’s potential for expanding the economic impact of research at UK, citing a study that estimated the annual direct and indirect economic impact of UK’s sponsored research at $581.2 million in fiscal 2013, with more than 8,000 jobs created and $21.3 million generated in local and state taxes. In a presentation to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee in February, Capilouto projected that the new facility would add $116.2 million in total economic impact to that, along with 1,600 additional jobs and $5.6 million more in state and local taxes.
Construction on the new building is set to begin by the end of the year.