Salk Institute Puts New $250M Sci-Tech Center on Hold

The Salk Institute in La Jolla has decided to delay construction of a $250-million science and technology center by three years, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune. The decision comes less than three years after the institute announced that Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife Joan would donate up to $100 million to help build the project as part of a larger capital campaign.

“We have substantial but finite financial resources, and thus must prioritize how those resources are deployed, with the aim of maximizing our ability to make high-impact scientific discoveries, both now and in the years to come,” Salk president Jerry Joyce said Friday in a statement to faculty and staff.

The facility will be called the Jacobs Science and Technology Center, the Union-Tribune reported. Although Joyce said in his statement that the institute is on pace to raise $750 million by the time its current seven-year fundraising campaign ends in June 2026, there’s been talk in the local scientific community about whether the private biomedical institute can raise the full $250 million it specifically needs for the new sci-tech center.