NIH Gives Rutgers $50M To Fund Research At The HELIX

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will give Rutgers a new $50-million grant, which will be a major funding source for research work planned to happen at the HELIX.

The HELIX is the five-acre science, tech and "innovation campus" under construction across from the New Brunswick train station.

Rutgers announced the $50-million grant Monday, and called it a "transformative award" that is "directly tied to the HELIX site's development in New Brunswick."

The NIH money will be spread out over the next seven years.

The $50 million will technically go to the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), which Rutgers launched in 2019, joined by Princeton University and NJIT in a first-ever collaboration. The NIH already gave NJ ACTS a $29-million grant, spread out over five years.

In total, the NIH has given Rutgers $79 million in research funding since 2019.

The idea of the HELIX is to have New Jersey's two largest universities (Rutgers and Princeton), and its two biggest hospital networks (Hackensack Meridian and RWJBarnabas) come together under one roof in the center of the state, and collaborate — instead of compete — with each other.

Gov. Phil Murphy previously said he imagines the HELIX to be a place where a new Facebook is invented, new vaccines are developed, or where cancer cures can be found.

"Think about all Rutgers does. Think about all Princeton does," the governor previously mused. "(You) will be able to walk down a hall and collaborate with science and pharmaceutical researchers. This is where new businesses will be born and new jobs will be created."

On Oct. 30, Murphy, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway (currently in his last year at the helm of the school), Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and RWJBarnabas Health CEO Mark Manigan will announce the new $50-million grant in a press conference held near the HELIX.

So far, part of that $50 million is earmarked to study childhood asthma, treat ER opioid overdoses, and prevent maternal mortality deaths.

Three buildings make up the HELIX; Nokia Bell Labs and Tel Aviv University are first tenants

The HELIX campus (it stands for New Jersey Health + Life Science Exchange) consists of three buildings: H-1, H-2 and H-3.

So far, construction has only started on H-1, which will be the new home of Rutgers Medical School. It is supposed to open in 2025, according to the HELIX website.

In a major shake-up last December, Nokia Bell Labs announced they will leave their longtime Berkeley Heights campus and relocate to the HELIX. They plan to occupy all of H-2, with a planned 2028 move-in date. Nokia will relocate approximately 1,000 employees to New Brunswick and intends to make the city their new global headquarters for research & development.

Tel Aviv University also plans to open a satellite campus at the HELIX. Pro-Palestinian protesters on the Rutgers campus continue to demand the school kill the Tel Aviv University deal, something President Holloway said he will not do.

Murphy previously said the door is "wide open" for private New Jersey companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck and others to rent space at the HELIX, pitching the property's location right next to the major Northeast Corridor train line.

Building H-3 will be a 42-story apartment building.

First Patch report on the HELIX: Rutgers, Princeton Come Together Under One Roof At NJ Tech Hub (2020)

Tel Aviv University The Newest Tenant At Rutgers' Tech Hub (2021)

Nokia Will Leave Union County, Relocate Headquarters To HELIX In New Brunswick (2023)

Rutgers President: We Will Not Sever Tel Aviv University Deal (Spring 2024)