UQ to open pharmacy precinct of the future

UQ’s School of Pharmacy is set to relocate to its new home within the $96 million Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) precinct at the end of 2009.

PACE is a unique health and medical facility that will better link pharmacy education to industry needs and allow the translation of research discoveries into positive impacts on human health.

At the heart of the PACE concept is the co-existence of the University, the pharmacy profession and relevant industry bodies together in the one space.

In 2003 the Queensland Government donated a 1.7 hectare site adjoining the Princess Alexandra Hospital at Dutton Park. The site is linked to the St Lucia campus via the Eleanor Schonell Bridge.

The precinct is being constructed in three phases, with the first being a new home for the School of Pharmacy, which will see teaching begin in Semester 1 next year.

State-of-the-art facilities include a 365 seat lecture theatre, a branch of the UQ Library, seminar rooms, small group meeting rooms, unique and innovative pharmacy practice environments, research laboratories, office space and an al fresco café.

PACE stages two and three will provide world-class commercial and research laboratory space within a clinical, research and discovery hub.

The school will potentially house 90 researchers and more than 100 postgraduate students, with close links to future neighbours, such as the Translational Research Institute Queensland, facilitating collaboration in a range of research activities from drug discovery, medicine development and clinical trials to commercialisation and marketing.

2010 will not only mark the beginning of teaching in the PACE facility, but also the 50 years of pharmacy education at The University of Queensland. To celebrate these important milestones, the school has commissioned a UQ Pharmacy history book which will be launched in conjunction with the opening of the precinct.

The official opening of PACE is scheduled for April 16, 2010.

Media: Stephanie Dunn (07 3365 2034, s.dunn@uq.edu.au) or Felicity Lindberg (07 3365 2344, f.lindberg@uq.edu.au)