Rutgers President William Tate doesn’t hedge when it comes to HELIX.
“I’m very bullish on it,” Tate told BINJE during an exclusive interview last week. “I think we have a unique opportunity to go hard and really build a biomedical slash broader technology innovative hub in that space.”
He made the same case last week at the ribbon-cutting of the New Jersey Innovation Hub at HELIX in New Brunswick.
There, he credited public policy at every level, from federal research dollars to the state’s Economic Recovery Act, which he said “created new mechanisms to invest in life sciences, technology, entrepreneurship and commercialization.”
“This building, this hub, is a product of that policy,” he said. “Policy changes the lives of people you may never meet.”
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More on the NJIH
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- CEO Duato sees ‘spirit’ of J&J in Hub
For Rutgers, the stakes start with the medical school. Tate said it will be in HELIX and is “hopefully accredited next year as the Rutgers Medical School in one of the very best buildings in the United States for medical education.”
He likes HELIX’s rule that what goes in has to be new.
“That’s net new business that has to go into HELIX,” he said. “So, when we put an investigator over there, that means they’ve got a new grant, or we hire new faculty from somewhere else.
“We’re just adding value, stacking value here in New Jersey.”
Rutgers brings in nearly $1 billion in research funding, Tate said. A common rule of thumb, he said, is that research returns 2.7 to 3 times what it brings in.
“That’s close to $3 billion of return to the state,” he said.
He wasn’t the only one to notice the potential. J&J Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato said he saw the spirt that created J&J in the building.
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For New Brunswick, Tate pointed to the neighbors.
“HELIX opens the doors wide because now you’re partnering,” he said. “Nokia is going to be next door. It’s a stunning opportunity.”
He also noted the address.
“One of the streets between the two buildings is going to be the Nobel Way,” Tate said. “It says it all.”
At the ribbon-cutting, he thanked the state, county and local leaders who backed the project.
“You answered the question: Is Middlesex County the place to build a competitive advantage?” he said. “Collectively, we responded yes, and here we stand.”
In the interview, he gave the state its due, too.
“For the folks who worked on that state policy to make that kind of innovation happen, kudos to you,” he said.
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Tate said he already has seen what HELIX could mean for students.
He recalled a story from last spring, when he said a student stopped him on College Avenue to ask if he was the president of Rutgers, and if they could talk. The student was an Educational Opportunity Fund student, an honors student and a pre-med senior headed to medical school in the HELIX.
Then he told Tate about his three roommates, one each in physics, data science and engineering. The four had volunteered at a hospital up the street, found a problem in pediatric oncology related to radiology, solved it and published their work. All of them were 20 or 21.
“It was stunning to me. That’s who New Jersey is,” Tate said Tuesday. “My mind raced to scale. How do you scale that?”
HELIX, he said, is the answer.
“Rutgers is prepared to ensure that competitive advantage is earned,” he said. “Let’s get to work. The cure is walking through the door.”
