City of Jacksonville and University of Florida Partnership Will Bring New Graduate Campus
Today, University of Florida (UF) and the city of Jacksonville pledged their commitment to explore creating a new graduate campus in downtown Jacksonville focused on the introduction of innovative programs in medicine, business and engineering.
The proposed campus would provide new graduate education programs aimed at supporting the region’s growing workforce in biomedical technology and focused on pioneering technology related to simulation, health applications of artificial intelligence, patient quality and safety, health care administration and fintech. The plan would include both classroom space and residences.
“We are excited about the possibility of hosting this University of Florida expansion to foster opportunity, a talent pipeline, and further grow our region’s industry, said Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.
The Jacksonville region has become a leader in financial technology and health care innovation. Recent headquarters announcements from fintechs Paysafe and Dun & Bradstreet will add a combined 1,100+jobs to the region’s already existing financial services and IT workforce of 64,800+ strong.
And with one of the largest and most innovative health care ecosystems in the nation, Northeast Florida is a center for medical breakthroughs and advanced leadership as displayed during the inaugural medical innovation summit held last year.
Although UF has had long-standing specialty and subspecialty graduate medical education programs at the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville, the plans call for bringing revolutionary approaches to training the health care professionals of tomorrow to the local Jacksonville area, including a regional UF Health campus.
This comes on the heels of the recent announcement of a merger between UF Health at Jacksonville and Flagler Health+, expanding the former’s presence to the region’s southern quadrant.
As a part of the next steps in this partnership, Curry announced intentions to bring a three-year, $50 million proposal to the Jacksonville City Council. UF and community leaders will seek an additional $50 million in private support.
“We’re excited to grow our historic partnership with Jacksonville through exploring what we envision as a new campus designed for the strengths of this unique city,” said Mori Hosseini, chair of the UF Board of Trustees. “We’re confident we can create incredible synergies by joining UF’s strengths as a top-five public flagship university with Jacksonville’s rising stature as national health care and technology hub.”