Charity $22.5m kickstarts new Qld innovation institute

The latest gilt-edged donation to Queensland from a charity founded by US businessman Charles Feeney will kickstart construction on a $70 million Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.

The new research complex will focus on advanced diagnostics, injury prevention and rehabilitation, molecular farming, health development, tissue regeneration, and vision impairment.

Scheduled for completion in 2004, it is designed to eventually house 400 researchers and support staff.

Some $22.5 million of its cost is being picked up by Atlantic Philanthropies, a private charity founded by Feeney whose worldwide chain of duty-free shops made him a billionaire.

It will bring to $70 million the contributions made to Queensland's bioscience research sector by Atlantic Philanthropies in the last 24 to 36 months.

Previous donations include $20 million to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, $17.5 million to the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and $10 million to the Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

Construction on the new research institute will begin almost immediately, according to officials with the State Government, which is providing a matching $22.5 million.

Queensland University of Technology has pledged to contribute $22.5 million to the research centre plus $2.5 million for land adjacent to its near-city Kelvin Grove campus.

The area in which the complex will rise is part of a State government-funded creative industries precinct housing educational, research and commercial spin-off entities.

The new institute's researchers will collaborate across disciplines to solve major health problems, commercialise discoveries, and provide health consultancy services throughout the Asia-Pacific region, said QUT dean of health Prof Ken Bowman.

The institute is expected to generate new grant revenues and spin off a number of new companies in its first five years of operation.