Governor pledges $27 million for BioStar

Chancellor John Wiley applauds Gov. Scott McCallum’s pledge of $27 million for the BioStar Initiative’s first major project, a Biotechnology Center addition.

The governor said the money will be included in his 2001-03 capital budget, which covers building projects. The total cost for the BioStar Initiative is $317 million, with $158.5 million coming from the state.

“This support from the state will allow the university to continue to recruit and retain the very best faculty in the biosciences, a major element of the Madison Initiative,” Wiley says. “These faculty members, many of whom are working in new and emerging areas of knowledge, are the key to creating new applications for research and educating the future workforce of our state.

McCallum’ s capital budget will be submitted to the state Building Commission Wednesday, March 21. If approved, construction would begin early next year.

The $317 million BioStar Initiative builds on a successful public-private partnership to fund campus construction. Projects would be paid for using a combination of state funding and private gifts and grants raised by the university. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has already pledged about $80 million, more than half of the private funding needed.

BioStar would fund four new buildings over the next eight years: the Biotechnology Center addition ($27 million), a new microbial sciences building ($100 million), a biochemistry building upgrade ($85 million) and an interdisciplinary biology building ($105 million).

“The first phase of BioStar will allow the university to stay in the vanguard of education and research in the biological sciences,” Wiley says. “The funding for Biostar will also provide the university with the means necessary to continue to build opportunities for the future of Wisconsin. Through technology transfer, patents on new discoveries and job growth from the creation of spinoff companies, UW–Madison will continue to help strengthen Wisconsin as a global player in the New Economy.”

Before the announcement, university officials gave McCallum a briefing on biotechnology and a tour of facilities.