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Boston College (BC) is putting the finishing touches on its new 157,000-sf Integrated Science Building, which will house the college’s new Human Centered Engineering program, as well as the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, the Computer Science Department, and the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship. Together, they will advance the college’s mission to pursue the sciences through a liberal arts lens, focusing on solving complex societal problems in energy, environment, and health. The facility, which will house 22 faculty, represents the largest single investment in the sciences in BC’s history.

The University of Kansas (KU) faced a daunting challenge: more than 11 million sf of facilities in 150 buildings whose average age was 45 years and a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $350 million. At the same time, the university’s strategic plan set a goal of increasing research and discovery, and the resulting campus master plan prioritized the need for new research facilities. Realizing that goal while addressing the existing challenges could have taken decades using traditional funding models. The solution? The Integrated Science Building, KU’s $180 million large-scale public-private partnership (P3) for interdisciplinary campus development, which is breaking new ground in funding models, integration, management structure, and fundraising activities. With this initiative, the university took a “great leap forward” in academic and research programs, design decisions, space allocations, programming, and critical infrastructure upgrades, as well as making a bold step with the project delivery.

The four-story expansion of the 1980s-era Murchie Science Building at the University of Michigan-Flint adds 68,000 sf of state-of-the art research labs, maker space, and instructional and collaboration spaces that create a sense of community for the largely non-traditional commuter student population. The building, with its glass lobby, is a gateway to the campus and a symbol of the emphasis that the liberal arts university places on STEM education.

Faculty in higher education often spend less than 20 percent of their workday at their assigned desks, so why do they still have them? It is a question that academic administrators are asking, as they look for ways to provide building occupants with the spaces they need to do their work and the autonomy to select the right space for the right task, all within an increasingly constrained campus footprint. Corporate offices have been making the transition to unassigned seating for years now, and despite trepidation, there are signs that academia may be following suit: In a recent survey of 88 U.S. colleges and universities (conducted by the Society for College and University Planning and brightspot, a Buro Happold company), about 62 percent of respondents said they are pursuing more flexible or unassigned workspaces for administrative staff, and 54 percent are planning to do so for academic work facilities, as well.

The global life sciences industry has been on the rise, growing more rapidly than ever over the past decade—well before the pandemic struck. In fact, its trajectory only accelerated throughout 2020 and into early 2021—with demand for its products surging and access to capital continuing to greatly expand in both periods. A record $70 billion of private and public capital (mostly venture capital and initial public offerings) poured into life sciences-related companies in North America in 2020, a 93 percent increase from the previous record of $36 billion received in 2018. And if investment continues at the pace we’ve seen in the first quarter of 2021 (already totaling $32.9 billion), we could see somewhere in the area of $90 billion raised this year alone. With COVID-19 challenging the sector last year like never before, the industry has clearly proven itself, sparking a light that illuminated a better way to work, collaborate, and innovate toward the hope of a vaccinated future. The speed at which COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and rolled out is a huge achievement for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and is also a testament to the power of global collaboration. Now that we know what’s achievable in a relatively short amount of time, many will ponder what’s next for the life sciences industry. What else is it capable of doing? With the recent success of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology, many researchers are increasingly seeing expanded possibilities in the technology to fight against infectious diseases, cancer, and more. This acceleration of the life sciences industry comes at a critical time, demonstrating the sector’s value and agility when the stakes have been so high.