Record $50 million donation renames Biomedical Research Institute
by Albert Raboteau
The Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin will donate a record $50 million to Virginia Tech to support research at the newly renamed Fralin Biomedical Research Institute within the evolving Virginia Tech Carilion Academic Health Center in Roanoke.
The most generous donation in the 146-year-history of Virginia’s research land-grant university will support recruiting and retaining world-leading biomedical researchers, and is twice as large as any other single gift to Virginia Tech.
“The Fralin family’s remarkable generosity highlights the growth and success of the VTC Health Sciences and Technology Campus, its important biomedical research, and extraordinary faculty,” university President Tim Sands said.
“Nancy Howell Agee is president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, a leading health care organization headquartered in Roanoke.
“This significant gift to Virginia Tech will improve lives and set the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC on a trajectory for future success,” Agee said. “Carilion Clinic is dedicated to improving the health and health care for our communities across the commonwealth. The expansion of Virginia Tech in Roanoke — and the commitment of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute to tackle the big problems in health care and find solutions — will serve as a catalyst to fast-track discoveries that will ultimately benefit our citizens across the commonwealth and beyond.”
Construction of a $90 million, 139,000-gross-square-foot facility is underway, expected to finish in spring 2020. The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and the VTC School of Medicine, which became Virginia Tech’s newest college this past summer, are also located on the campus. The campus’ economic impact in Virginia was $214 million in 2017 and is projected to more than double, approaching half-a-billion dollars per year, by 2026.
Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea said his city is fortunate to have highly engaged partners like Heywood Fralin and Virginia Tech President Tim Sands.
“Like so many mid-size cities, we were transitioning from an industrial economy to the digital age,” Lea said.
Fully realized, the VTC Academic Health Center will draw upon the expanding medical research enterprise at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, the innovative medical education at the VTC School of Medicine, the 21st-century health care delivery and clinical training at Carilion Clinic, and other related health and medical entities to transform the way health care is delivered through a commitment to continuous discovery. By combining the strengths of Virginia Tech and Carilion, the center will advance the quality of health, health care, health education, and significant research that drives economic prosperity to make an impact in the Roanoke community and the world.
The record gift comes a at time of dramatically increased support, overall, by donors to Virginia Tech, which is fueling major initiatives throughout the university. Virginia Tech has raised $100 million or more in each of the past three fiscal years, including $100.4 million in 2015-16, $162.3 million in 2016-17, and $153.6 million in 2017-18. The university’s fiscal years run from July 1 through June 30.
“The City of Roanoke will evolve dramatically over the next 25 years. I am excited to be one of many catalysts in this transformation that will create a thriving economy in Southwest Virginia. We will need many more to make this new economy as great as it can be,” Fralin said.
