The BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) is a collaborative life science research building in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. It is similar in concept to the Clark Center/BioX at Stanford University and the Broad Institute at MIT, among other collaborative centers. After Rice University President David Leebron announced his "Vision for the Second Century," including plans to increase research funding, build up existing programs, and increase collaboration between Rice and other entities, the construction of the BRC went forward with the intention of fostering collaboration with the neighboring Texas Medical Center. The BRC was built by Rice University, and officially opened in April 2010. A unique characteristic of the BRC as compared to other academic research institutes is the shared research space by faculty from Rice University and groups from neighboring Texas Medical Center institutions.Collaborative research provides an advantage over traditional research in that multiple professors, or principal investigators, and their laboratory groups work together on different aspects of the same problem which usually results in finding a solution in a shorter amount of time.
