A medical research partnership between OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois is getting a big boost.
JUMP ARCHES is now believed to be the world’s largest medical research endowment with a combined $112.5 million in funding.
John Vozenelik is the vice president and chief medical officer for the Jump Trading and Simulation Center in Peoria.
“We’ll make twice as many grants, employ twice as many investigators and investigative teams, and expand the scope to all the universities, so not just engineering, but also social services, public health and all the other disciplines that are not currently accessed," he said.
The endowment will now dole out $4 million in annual grants after receiving a combined $50 million in donations from private and public entities.
Vozenelik says while people usually expect big projects like this to take root on the coasts or in Chicago, he says the proximity JUMP Arches can drive innovation right here in Central Illinois.
“It is in fact the proximity we have to the needs of our patients in our current environment, and then the current constraints of healthcare, that allows us to think differently about solutions," he said.
The funding will also help with the development of the Peoria Innovation Hub downtown. That project is developing in coordination with the University of Illinois' Discovery Partners Institute.
