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FEATURE | Biosciences

New Biosciences Building Construction Starts

As Trinity embarks on one of the most ambitious projects in its history – the construction of a new Biosciences building – TCD Dean of Research David Lloyd explains why this development is so important.

(Photo captioned: An architects’ illustration of the Biosciences building in Pearse Street)

WHY BIOSCIENCES IN TCD?

Biosciences, scientific research related to health and biology, is a huge field. Trinity is fortunate to have truly world-class researchers and research activities in this domain. Past activities of bioscience researchers have delivered the technologies that underpinned the nicotine patch, identified new genes for major diseases such as childhood eczema, discovered why some people are more prone to malaria or lung cancer, and pushed the boundaries of our understanding of how diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and arthritis work. Our international rankings show our outputs are amongst the best in the world.

WHY IS THE BIOSCIENCES BUILDING SO IMPORTANT FOR TRINITY AND WHAT WILL IT ACHIEVE?

World-class research activity has to be housed in an environment that supports creativity and interdisciplinarity. We have great people and we are very successful at securing research funding. The missing ingredient is scale. This development will allow us to integrate and consolidate our research in the health sciences areas. It is the largest building project in the College’s history and mapped directly to one of our strategic research priorities. We’ve had external validation from Nobel Laureates and international thought leaders. This is the right thing to do if we are to copperfasten Trinity’s place as the leading scientific university in Ireland, and enhance our ability to execute leading edge biomedical and bioscientific research.

WHERE IS IT LOCATED AND WHAT WILL THE BUILDING BE LIKE?

The development is located on the former overflow car-park site on Pearse Street. It is part of a bigger strategy to rejuvenate Pearse Street _ the Naughton Institute and new Sports Centre have already changed the landscape of this area in the heart of Dublin. The new building is a modern design of the highest standards. It’s just shy of 30,000 square metres and will be five storeys to the parapet _ the same height as the Naughton Institute _ with three penthouses and three basement levels. The ground floor will be commercial retail space and includes a new entrance to Pearse Street train station.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE PROJECT?

Construction started this summer and will be completed in 2010. The whole development will cost €140M. College already has an attractive private financial deal with developers P.J. Walls to facilitate our starting the construction, and is working hard to secure the outstanding funds from a mixture of state support and philanthropic engagement.

For further information on this project please contact:

Dr David G. Lloyd, Dean of Research
t. +353 1 8961398
e. dean.of.research@tcd.ie
www.tcd.ie/research