Helmsley Trust grants $18 million to University of Haifa, Rambam, Technion

Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center will receive the largest-ever grant ever given by the Leona and Harry Helmsley Charitable Trust – $18 million – for the construction of the Helmsley Health Discovery Tower on the campus.

Providing an ideal environment for medical research, discovery and innovation, the tower will be a hub to foster novel ideas for the transformation of healthcare at the local, national and global levels, Rambam said on Tuesday. Its Innovation Partnership Center will enable unique collaboration among the University of Haifa, Rambam and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and will support strategic partnerships with the medical device, pharmaceutical and information technology industries.

The 20-story tower will include several leading initiatives, including a new home for Rambam’s clinical institutes in ophthalmology and gastroenterology and the School of Graduate Dentistry, as well as the establishment of a clinical research institute in the fields of brain and neuroscience, cancer, cardiology, diabetes, nephrology, human genomic medicine, medical devices and minimally invasive surgical advances.

In addition, the University of Haifa will have a new location for its Center for Translational Research in Health Sciences and Public Health, its Center for Evidence-Based Nursing Research and its Research Center for Health Sciences and Life Sciences. The university’s expertise in life sciences, drug discovery, and health system models will be leveraged to address national and global health challenges, Rambam said.

The Innovation Partnership Center will host start-up companies and early stage initiatives, such as incubators and technological working spaces with health science entrepreneurs. This center will build on Israel’s strengths as a Start-Up Nation, and enable the development of innovations.

In addition, the Technion will receive facilities for its medical engineering activities, focusing on biomedical engineering innovation and a new congress and exhibition center will provide convention services and facilities for researchers, physicians and entrepreneurs throughout Israel.

Thus, the tower will encourage the advancement of new ideas in biological therapeutics, pharmacological products and medical instrumentation, together with health systems and policy research. Through its incubators for new start-ups, it will offer clinician-scientists the opportunity to turn their knowledge into novel products and services.

“The Helmsley Health Discovery Tower is an important addition to the Rambam campus and the larger Haifa community,” said Sandor Frankel, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “It will improve access to health care in the northern periphery of Israel, strengthen patient-centered the region, and support greater collaboration among... three of Israel’s great institutions, as well as with the medical and biotech industry.”

Rambam director-general Prof. Rafael Beyar expressed his hospital’s “great appreciation to the trust for this extraordinary contribution. The Health Discovery Tower, with its unique combination of medicine, technology, and humanitarian values, will be the cornerstone of our vision moving forward, enabling us to help, not only the people of Israel, but to impart critical knowledge across the globe.”

University of Haifa president Prof. Ron Robin said the project will “provide a jump-start for our excellent researchers in making even more significant contributions to the clinical care of the people of our region, our nation, and the world. The signing of this agreement is significant towards expansion of the University of Haifa’s educational and research activities, as part of the transformation process into a ‘multiversity.’”