Carle-Illinois College of Medicine’s Connection to Research Park Cited

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees recently voted unanimously to establish the College of Medicine at Illinois, the nation’s first college of medicine focused, from the beginning, on the intersection of engineering and medicine.

The college will be a partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health System, and will integrate the university’s assets in engineering, technology, and supercomputing. Research Park played a role in developing a case for the College. In  January 2014, the Research Park commissioned a study on strategies for technology sector economic impact in Champaign-Urbana.

“The College of Medicine grew from recommendations in a 2014 economic development study conducted by the Research Park,” wrote Chancellor Phyllis Wise in her blog post on the topic. (See the Cluster Report HERE). The report was cited in several media outlets, including The-News-Gazette and USA TODAY College. 

Biotech continues to grow as a theme in the Research Park, with the recent opening of Fortune 500 firm Abbvie as well as the significant cluster of medical-related startups at the EnterpriseWorks incubator. This community is poised to grow once the College of Medicine is established.