Historic funding secured

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Tags: buildings, centenary-edition, health, medical research, philanthropy

Helga and Charles Feeney with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield at the announcement

Australia will have a stronger role in global efforts to address major diseases such as cancer and diabetes following a $50 million gift, the biggest donation of its kind in the nation’s history.

The gift is a Founding Chairman’s grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to the $354 million Translational Research Institute Queensland in Brisbane.

TRI Queensland will enhance and accelerate the translation of medical research breakthroughs into better patient care.

It is the largest ever gift from a non-government source to a single Australian medical research/higher education institute.

Atlantic’s founder, Mr Charles F. Feeney, was instrumental in encouraging a co-ordinated funding approach to the project, which also has funds from the Queensland and Australian Governments, UQ and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Mr Feeney, who shuns the limelight and never seeks thanks for his generosity, made a rare public appearance in Brisbane when Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan announced Atlantic’s gift in July.

Paying tribute to his late friend Ken Fletcher, a tennis star who introduced him to Queensland and Australia in the 1990s, Mr Feeney said: “I can’t think of any place in the world where I have made such good, honest friends.”

TRI Queensland Chairman, Dr David Watson, praised Atlantic’s unprecedented gift, which crowned more than three years of fundraising efforts. “This is a great day for Queensland and a great day for Australia,” he said.

TRI Queensland will be built at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH, a UQ teaching hospital) by a joint venture comprising UQ, QUT, PAH, Mater Medical Research Institute and the Queensland Government.

Eventually housing more than 700 researchers, it will be an Australian first, and one of only a few places in the world where new biopharmaceuticals and treatments can be discovered, produced, clinically tested, and manufactured in one location.

Atlantic’s contribution is part of an $102 million parcel for Brisbane-based research, unveiled together. The other gifts are $27.5 million for the Queensland Institute of Medical Research’s Smart State Medical Research Centre, and $25 million towards QUT’s Hub for Sustainable and Secure Infrastructure.

Total value of the three projects exceeds $700 million.

By Fiona Kennedy

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