Illinois Grants $15.4 Million for Lab Space Development

Illinois grants $15.4 Million for lab space development

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced a $15.4 million investment in the Rebuild Illinois funded Wet Lab Capital program to support 8 new wet lab spaces throughout Illinois. This will help to make way for advancements in research and medicine, grow startups and make Illinois more competitive in life sciences.

Crain's Chicago Business reports that five universities and a pair of Chicago area ventures have won state grants to help develop high-quality lab space for biotechnology and pharmaceutical research under a new incentive program created by Governor J.B. Pritzker's administration.

This move will help address a lack of research space in the region that for years has lead early-stage life sciences companies to defect to other, more mature research markets as they grow.

Eight projects with a combined value of $90 million won funding from the program. Five grants are for projects in the Chicago area and the other three are in downstate Illinois.

Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity states that the Governor also announced a $5 million capital grant to expand the Illinois Institute of Technology's microgrid to optimize energy at the Bronzeville campus. The expansion will yield $200,000 a year in energy savings and on-campus renewable energy generation, as well as savings from reduced outages, damage and lost experimental productivity.

 

"Last year, my administration launched a Wet Lab Capital program to meet the technical needs of startups, incubators, and universities across the state. Today, after receiving so many brilliant applications from project developers across Illinois, I am excited to announce $15.4 million in grants that is funding $90 million worth  of wet lab expansions throughout Illinois - in Chicago but also at both of Southern Illinois University's campuses, at Rosalind Franklin University in the heart of Illinois' biopharma ecosystem in northern Illinois, and at life science hubs up and down the state."

Governor of Illinois | JB Pritzker

 

The funded projects include:

 

 - Back of the Yards Algae Sciences LLC - $250,000.00

 - Illinois Institute of Technology - $1,499,569.00

 - Northwestern University - $3,000,000.00

 - NuMat Technologies - $3,500,000.00

 - Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science - $2,007,000.00

 - Southern Illinois University Carbondale - $2,734,008.00

 - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville - $1,875,569.00

 - University of Illinois Research Park LLC - $550,000.00

 

Wet Labs are where cutting-edge research in life sciences occurs and represent a critical component of research and development for companies in the following fields:

 

 - Biotechnology

 - Pharmaceuticals

 - Medicines

 - Medical devices

 - Diagnostics

 - Research

 - Manufacturing organizations

 

Wet lab space is customized with ventilation and other infrastructure needed to handle chemicals and materials commonly associated with biotech research.

 

Illinois Project Leads

 

Posted by Judy Lamelza

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