Tel Aviv University The Newest Tenant At Rutgers' Tech Hub

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Israel's Tel Aviv University is the latest addition to the Innovation & Technology Hub, the massive new education/science/tech campus Gov. Phil Murphy and Rutgers University are planning to open in the heart of New Brunswick.

Scheduled to open in 2024, the NJ Innovation & Tech Hub will be a 10-story, 550,000-square-foot, $665 million complex on Albany Street, right across from the NJ Transit/Amtrak station.

Think of it as New Jersey's answer to Google's Mountain View campus or Silicon Valley: Murphy wants to turn New Brunswick into a place where products like the next iPhone, or a new life-saving cancer treatment will be invented.

Rutgers, Princeton University, Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJBarnabas will all be housed together under one roof in the Tech Hub.

And now we can add Tel Aviv University to the list.

On Wednesday, the presidents of Tel Aviv University and Rutgers signed a memorandum of understanding that allows Tel Aviv University to not only maintain a physical space inside the Hub, but also promises information sharing between the world's two leading research universities.

New Jersey's version of Silicon Valley

The Tech Hub is scheduled to open in 2024; construction just started last month.

Once complete, the NJ Innovation & Tech Hub will be one of the most enduring legacies of the Murphy administration: Murphy's goal is to have the two most well-respected universities in the state (Rutgers, Princeton) and the state's two largest hospital networks (Hackensack, RWJ) operate collaboratively out of one single building — not competing with each other, but instead sharing research, ideas and technology advancements.

Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is also supposed to relocate to the Hub. The Hub will be connected to the $750 million Rutgers Cancer Pavilion, the first free-standing cancer treatment center in the state; construction started on that this year, as well. The Hub will also house Rutgers Translational Research facility ("translational" is a word thrown around by academics that just means turning scientific discoveries into practice.)

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Murphy first started talking about the idea for the Hub on the campaign trail when he was running for governor five years ago.

"Nowhere else will have such research power under one roof," vowed Murphy. "Think about all Rutgers does. Think about all Princeton does ... (They) 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."

The governor said the door is "wide open" for private companies like Johnson & Johnson, Merck and others to rent space there. But the Hub is not limited to pharmaceutical giants; he also hopes the Hub will be a launch pad for technology and small business start-ups.

The memorandum of understanding was signed Wednesday in Israel by Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway and Tel Aviv University president Ariel Porat. Gov. Murphy joined virtually via Zoom.

A grant program will also be established, using New Jersey tax dollars, to provide seed funding for five collaborative research projects between Rutgers and Tel Aviv students and professors.

“(The Hub) has the potential to be the most meaningful and profound investment this state has ever made, that will take innovation and discovery from the bench to the bedside,” Holloway said previously. “This investment will fuel the kind of innovation that unleashes the combined power of one of America’s greatest public research universities with industry and other academic partners to disrupt and to transform the state and regional economies.”

Rutgers and Tel Aviv University have previously collaborated on COVID-19 research, drug discovery, cybersecurity, gene therapy and nanomaterials.

Tel Aviv University is Israel's largest and most comprehensive university, home to 30,000 students and 125 schools and departments.

Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com

Prior: Princeton, Rutgers, RWJ Come Together Under One Roof In New Brunswick (Oct. 2021)