Liberty Science Center Breaks Ground on SciTech Scity, Names First Tenant

Liberty Science Center (LSC) today broke ground on the $300-million first phase of SciTech Scity, its 30-acre “city of tomorrow” innovation campus. SciTech Scity aims to be a revolutionary technological hub for students, innovators, entrepreneurs and scientists working together to create a community for learning and innovation.

The first phase of SciTech Scity includes:

• Edge Works: A central location for innovation comprising two distinct hubs. The Works will be a fabrication lab, research and development labs, offices, and co-working space for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The Co-Creation Center will be a state-of-the-art conference center and tech exhibition gallery;
• Scholars Village: Residential housing for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, STEM graduate students, and families who desire to be a part of the SciTech Scity community;
• Public Commons: Five-acre outdoor park with activations that encourage exploration, creativity, collaboration, and innovation. An events plaza for concerts, farmers markets, art exhibitions, and food-truck festivals; a playful boardwalk that breaks through buildings; greenhouses; interactive water features; and a 40-foot-tall iconic art installation.

Subsequent phases of SciTech Scity will include expanded incubation facilities, a science-focused public school, and other facilities to drive STEM innovation and job creation.

Phase I of SciTech Scity is scheduled to open in late 2023 and 2024.

Sheba Medical Center to be First Tenant

LSC’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Hoffman and Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, additionally announced today that Sheba Medical Center will become the first Innovation partner and first international tenant at SciTech Scity after a memorandum of understanding was executed between their respective organizations.

Through this partnership, cutting-edge technologies in healthtech out of Israel, “The Start-Up Nation,” will be showcased in a state-of-the-art simulation facility in New Jersey as Sheba transforms a floor of the eight-story Edge Works “business optimizer” at SciTech Scity into Liberty ARC HealthSpace2030. 

The simulation space will leverage the expertise of Sheba’s existing world-renowned medical simulation center (MSR) in Tel HaShomer, near Tel Aviv, and focus on advances in digital health and home healthcare, employing a host of technologies that integrate sensing, monitoring, AI, communication, augmented reality and robotic technologies to maximize patient care and comfort while minimizing risk to staff. Solutions will be focused on promoting healthy living, coping with chronic diseases (such as diabetes) at home, and promoting health equity.

“Advances in digital health and home healthcare promise to help people everywhere, but these advances will particularly help underserved populations who don’t have easy access to specialized care,” said Hoffman. “Liberty ARC HealthSpace2030 complements Liberty Science Center and SciTech Scity’s mission to innovate and promote science and technology for all. Sheba is the largest hospital system in the Middle East and one of the top 10 hospitals in the world. We are delighted that they are partnering with us.”

Hoffman added that SciTech Scity and Liberty Science Center will assist Sheba in testing and introducing digital health and home health products in underserved communities in Jersey City and beyond. And it is anticipated that new technologies, products, and companies emerging from the Liberty ARC HealthSpace2030 will create jobs in Jersey City.

“It is an honor to play an integral role in the development of this evolutionary and revolutionary SciTech Scity/Liberty Science Center project, which will enable Sheba Medical Center to spur the digital healthcare revolution within the realm of ARC HealthSpace 2030, providing an engine of economic growth, as well as creating a myriad of cutting-edge healthcare options for the citizens of New Jersey and the metropolitan region,” said Professor Yitshak Kreiss, CEO of Sheba Medical Center. “This is also an important development for the State of Israel, collaborating with our partners in New Jersey on ground-breaking medical innovation for the benefit of all.”

Zimlichman explained that SciTech Scity is a natural home for the Liberty ARC HealthSpace2030, noting, “We wanted to bring all the technologies into one space to see how they work in the healthcare environment and with the entirety of the medical team. This space will allow companies to come in and help us design the future.”

He said Sheba expects to adopt these technologies widely over the next few years, “hopefully sooner than 2030. COVID gave us the opportunity to accelerate innovation and especially digital health solutions. We have much more in store.”

ARC stands for Accelerate Redesign Collaborate, and Zimlichman emphasized that feedback on all the technologies being piloted currently at Sheba and in the new SciTech Scity space will be shared with partner hospitals throughout North America and Europe.

Zimlichman indicated that LAH will collaborate closely and be synergistic with Sheba ARC’s planned innovation center in Chicago that will host many startups coming out of Israel and these ARC Chicago technologies will be showcased in New Jersey as well. The most advanced technologies will be displayed at the Liberty ARC HealthSpace2030 and implemented in residences in Scholars Village and elsewhere in Jersey City. 

Scholars Village is a complex of residential housing being developed for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, STEM graduate students, and individuals and families who desire to be a part of the SciTech Scity community.

Thanks to the collaboration with Sheba, SciTech Scity will be the place to see the near-term future of healthcare technology come to life. SciTech Scity is currently seeking select Innovation Partners in energy, consumer electronics, life sciences, fintech, computer hardware, personal transportation, edtech, and other industrial sectors that are key to our future on the planet, Mr. Hoffman said.

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