Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell Tech, and Cornell Ithaca are seeking ideas and inspiration to kickstart an application to create the next Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.
The CZ Initiative has released an RFA calling for “a Biohub that will focus on developing new technologies to measure and observe human biology in ways that help deepen our understanding of human health and disease.” The goal is to pursue a grand scientific challenge on a 10-15 year time horizon, with a budget of >$200 million. The key requirements of the new hub should be as follows:
- Be highly interdisciplinary and multi-institutional in one city or geographical area
- Include large engineering challenges
- Be “wildly ambitious”
- Diversify the CZ Biohub’s existing portfolio (infectious diseases, quantitative cell science, neuroscience, AI, imaging)
The aim is to think BIG: this idea shouldn’t be one that can be accomplished by a single lab or even a group of labs. It should radically rethink the way we do science, be transformative, involve the implementation of new technologies that are nascent or have yet to be developed, and must potentially span different disease processes.
Please send us your ideas (up to three) as a single paragraph per idea, addressing each of the key requirements listed above (e.g. what engineering challenges need to be addressed for your proposed idea?), listing potential programs, institutes, centers or departments that could be a part of this idea, and other local institutions with which we can partner (the RFA requires at least 3 collaborating institutions). A group of senior faculty across all three campuses will compile and review the ideas and if applicable, organize follow-up discussions. The deadline for submitting your ideas is Friday 18th February.
Submit your ideas: https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ahfqpNJANryDtfU
