07 May Guest column: University Research Park reflects life sciences growth
By Aaron Olver-
May 7, 2019
Olver is managing director of University Research Park in Madison and a member of the board of directors for the Wisconsin Technology Council, which is headquartered in URP.
By this time in 2020, University Research Park’s footprint, the portfolio of labs and offices we manage, will be 40% larger than it was in 2010. Our growth reflects an underlying trend that’s not always obvious: From nascent research in lab petri dishes to scaling players investing in new facilities, Madison’s life science cluster is booming.
Aaron Olver, managing director of University Research Park
Unlike healthcare IT, Madison’s life science scene isn’t dominated by one highly visible juggernaut like Epic Systems. Exact Sciences, though, may be a contender for that title.
Exact’s growth is increasingly visible through facilities across the community. Working with Exact, University Research Park is constructing the company’s new headquarters in the park to complement research and development and operations facilities here. Just across the beltline, Exact is building out another campus to accommodate its growing workforce, some 1,800 strong in Madison.
Elsewhere in the community, life science leaders such as Promega, Catalent and Shine Medical Technologies are all working on new facilities.
Startups and scaling companies have always been University Research Park’s bread and butter. Companies in the park such as Invenra, Flugen and Nimble Therapeutics have recently closed funding rounds of $7 million, $5.6 million and $10 million, respectively.
READ FULL STORY on Wisconsin Technology Council website