The prestigious Woolcock sleep and respiratory centre is splitting from the University of Sydney for the first time in its 41-year history, after the university sold its building to developers.
Home to more than 200 researchers, the Woolcock Institute for Medical Research will officially end its affiliation in March, with Macquarie University becoming the institute’s primary partner at the same time.
Its offices, labs and clinical services, which see more than 250 patients per week and conduct approximately 2,000 sleep studies a year, will move to the university’s health campus at Macquarie Park by April 2024.
The move comes after the University of Sydney sold the Woolcock’s six-storey building in Glebe for $39 million last November as part of efforts to raise cash during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Media reports at the time said a “high net worth Sydney family” had purchased the facility and agreed to honour the remainder of Woolcock’s $589,000 annual lease (link here).
But they had also indicated it would not be extended beyond 2024, so the centre was forced to look elsewhere for a new home, said the Woolcock’s executive director Professor Carol Armour.
“We spoke to the university but their plans were different and involved opportunities for other medical research institutes,” she told the limbic.
“And meanwhile, Macquarie was incredibly interested in talking to us.”
Professor Armour stressed there would be no interruptions to the institute’s research or its patient care in the short term, although behind the scenes administration support would come from Macquarie University as of April.
The finer details were currently up in the air but Macquarie had also indicated it would support the Woolcock’s extensive presence in Vietnam, she said.