Queen's University Belfast will today unveil the foundation stone for its new £39 million School of Biological Sciences (Thursday 9 June 2016).

The new School will be a key driver for the development and future growth of the life sciences and agri-food sectors in Northern Ireland, which currently employ some 80,000 people and generate more than £5.5 billion in sales each year.

Due to open in 2018, the building will provide the facilities to help grow our life sciences sector, especially in areas such as agriculture/food science, food safety, disease/infection biology, diagnostics, waste management, ecosystems and the environment.  The Life and Health Sciences and Agri-Food sectors are key to driving future economic prosperity in Northern Ireland.  The Life Science graduates who will be trained within the new building will underpin these areas and help facilitate future growth.

The new School, which is being built at Chlorine Gardens in Belfast, will offer state-of-the art teaching and research facilities for its 750 students and 170 staff, who will tackle some of the world's most pressing issues.

Speaking ahead of the unveiling today, Head of the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's, Professor Aaron Maule, said: "To ensure Northern Ireland's crucial agri-food and life sciences sectors can remain competitive at home and internationally, they need access to a highly skilled workforce who have been educated in a way that is directly relevant to their needs.  A high quality life science graduate skills base and an internationally recognised academic research capacity in this area are critical to the Northern Ireland economy and its future growth and development.  This is where Queen's and the School of Biological Sciences play a critical role.  This new building will ensure we attract the best staff and students from Northern Ireland and around the world, and continue to produce graduates who are making a real and lasting impact in fields as diverse as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, food science, infectious diseases, marine sustainability and environmental management."