Image credit: Design render
The new heart of South Australia’s largest integrated health and medical research precinct has soared to new heights, with the topping out of Flinders University’s $280m Health and Medical Research Building project at Bedford Park.
Climbing to its peak at 51m, the purpose-built ten-storey building will be home for more than 600 medical researchers, clinicians, and professional staff, translating world-class research into better health and wellbeing outcomes for the community.
“Building on our proud history as a pioneer in innovative health as the first medical school in the nation to be integrated into a public hospital, HMRB is a $280m gift by the University to the people of South Australia,” Vice Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling says.
Located adjacent to Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders Private Hospital, HMRB is the flagship building of the wider Flinders Village development – southern Adelaide’s biomedical research precinct that brings together research, education, accommodation, and amenity, and driving $1.5bn in economic activity, including 600 direct and 20,000 indirect jobs.
“My colleagues and I are working on the most challenging diseases of our time, sharing research space with Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders Private Hospital, and recruiting research participants from the population of some 370,000 in Adelaide’s south that they serve. But we have outgrown the space available,” Professor Claire Roberts says.
“Housing more than 600 basic, clinical and allied health research scientists together with data scientists and digital health experts, the 10-storey HMRB with its amazing state-of-the-art facilities provides exciting new collaborative research opportunities that will help us to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of people everywhere.”
Building on more than 50 years of exceptional health and medical teaching and research, HMRB will feature one of South Australia’s largest suite of PC2-rated physical containment labs spread across five floors, and be equipped with state-of-the-art cell imaging equipment.
They’ll be used by researchers working on improving health, preventing disease and combating community health inequities with a focus on molecular biosciences, clinical translation and healthy communities.
Premier Peter Malinauskas and Vice Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling celebrated by signing the uppermost beam atop the building.
“Flinders’ Health and Medical Research Building will utterly transform the south and this biomedical precinct, while building on the University’s 50-year partnership with the Flinders Medical Centre, just metres away, Premier Peter Malinauskas says.
“Today’s topping out is a great milestone for the advancement of health and medical research in our state, and I congratulate Flinders University for their research excellence, innovation and commitment to the health and wellbeing of our community.”
Set to be one of Australia’s most sustainable research institutions, HMRB will be 100% powered by electricity from renewable sources and will be built to a Gold WELL and LEED certification for sustainability and wellbeing. 100% of construction waste is being diverted from landfill during construction.
The facility has been designed with, and to serve, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is on track to be completed next year.
For more information on the Flinders Medical Research Project, click here.
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