Biopolis

Biopolis (Chinese: 启奥园 or 启奥生物医药研究园, formerly 生物医药研究园) is an international research and development centre located in Singapore for biomedical sciences. It is located in One-North in Buona Vista, near Dover, and is close to the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Polytechnic, the Institute of Technical Education, the National University Hospital, the Singapore Science Park, Ministry of Education, and Fusionopolis. This campus is dedicated to providing space for biomedical research and development activities and promoting peer review and collaboration among the private and public scientific community.

Development

Phase One

"Biopolis Phase One" is a 185,000 m² (2,000,000 ft²) biomedical complex of seven buildings that were constructed from June 2003 to March 2004 at a cost of S$500 million. They are namely: Nanos, Genome, Helios, Chromos, Proteos, Matrix and Centros. Several government agencies, publicly-funded research institutes and research labs of pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies are located there.

Phase Two

"Biopolis Phase Two" was completed in October 2006, comprising two blocks, named Neuros and Immunos, which will house research on neuroscience and immunology respectively. The seven-storey 37,000 m² complex was designed and constructed over 18 months at a cost of S$70 million. The new addition increases the Biopolis research complex to a total of 222,000 m², or about half the size of Suntec City. Daryl Loo, "2 new Biopolis blocks to beef up research", "The Straits Times", 31 October 2006] Tan Hui Leng, "Biopolis booster for local biomed scene", "Today", 31 October 2006]

* [http://www.biomed-singapore.com/bms/sg/en_uk/index/newsroom/media_kit.html.asp Biopolis fact Sheet]

Features

Amenities

For the general public, Biopolis has eight shops, four restaurants, four cafes, a 300-seater food court, a fast food restaurant, a pub and a childcare centre.

Function rooms

For its members, Biopolis has a 480-seater auditorium and four 250-seater lecture theaters. It also has 13 meeting rooms.

Accommodation

There are plans to build a hotel nearby and a large number of private condominium units. The latter is controversial, attracting public concern whether such developments are needed, especially during turbulent economic conditions. Biopolis is further surrounded by nearby HDB housing estates.

Biopolis arts programme

An initiative of the one-north arts program, one-north Development Group (oDG) of JTC Corporation launched the first Biopolis Arts Program@one-north on 14 May 2002. oDG supports the nurturing of the local and overseas arts community, by way of co-developing and funding the art programs in one-north. All major developmental projects in one-north will be encouraged to contribute towards the funding of significant artwork in-situ.

References

External links

* [http://www.one-north.sg/hubs_biopolis.aspx Official homepage]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/business/worldbusiness/17stem.html Singapore Acts as Haven for Stem Cell Research] "The New York Times", August 16, 2006
* [http://www.biomed-singapore.com/bms/sg/en_uk/index.html.asp Singapore's Biomedical Sciences Initiative]