History

Yale University was in the midst of a $1 billion upgrade of its science and medical facilities in 2007 when it was presented with a unique opportunity: the 136-acre Bayer Pharmaceutical campus, located seven miles from New Haven, became available for purchase for just $109 million — a price that included 17 buildings furnished and outfitted with office equipment and bio-science laboratories.

The benefits to the University were clear: the addition of a ready-made, state-of-the-art research space would allow the growth of Yale’s science and medical facilities “to accelerate at an unprecedented level — potentially making it possible for Yale scientists to develop new discoveries, inventions and cures years earlier,” said President Richard C. Levin when announcing Yale’s purchase of the Bayer complex.

Today that potential is being realized, and West Campus has become a vital part of Yale, a hub for innovation and exploration. Furthermore, it has become a community, peopled with scientists, engineers, artists, scholars, and the administrative staff who support them.

As Levin noted in 2007, the West Campus purchase “has transformative potential … only some of which we can envision today. We’ve given our successors an opportunity to dream in ways we can’t imagine today.”

Organization

West Campus is organized into research institutes and core facilities — all designed to promote collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue.

The research institutes focus on a particular area of study: be it understanding the workings of a cell, developing economically viable sources of sustainable energy, or harnessing the power of digital technology to preserve millennia-old art and cultural artifacts.

Each institute includes faculty and researchers from a wide range of academic departments and professional schools — or, in some cases, from Yale’s libraries and museums — who bring their collective knowledge and expertise to bear on a common problem. This mingling of different perspectives inevitably sparks new ideas that can transform the course of the research and inspire new discoveries.

With over 1.6 million square feet of workspace, West Campus can accommodate the individual needs of these research institutes — from the design of laboratory and work areas, to room for equipment and new technologies.

West Campus’ core facilities support the work of these institutes, offering researchers access to state-of-the-art technology, specialized laboratory equipment, and research services. The core facilities are also resources for the entire campus, and several offer services to outside institutions.

Together, the research institutes and the core facilities provide an infrastructure that promotes new insights in the sciences and arts, and give researchers the freedom to grow and expand the scope of their work.