What is BioStar?

The $317 million BioStar Initiative builds on a successful public-private partnership to fund campus construction. Projects would be paid for using a combination of state funding and private gifts and grants raised by the university.

The idea was developed in the early 1990s to help UW-Madison overcome a backlog of high-priority building projects in research and medicine. The two programs that emerged - called WisStar and HealthStar - helped change the face of the campus.

Building projects under those programs include: the current Biotechnology Center; new buildings for chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacy and engineering; a Health Sciences Learning Center; and an Interdisciplinary Research Addition to the UW Hospital.

BioStar would fund four new buildings over the next eight years: a Biotechnology Center addition ($27 million), a new microbial sciences building ($100 million), a biochemistry building upgrade ($85 million) and an interdisciplinary biology building ($105 million).

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