The University will construct a new building to aid collaborative scientific research, UT President Jim Davis announced in his 2026 State of the University address on Oct. 21.
The University has not released any details on the future location or design of the building and a University spokesperson was also unable to provide additional information. The building will not be connected to any one college or school and will serve multiple scientific pursuits, Davis said.
The Frontiers of Science Building, Davis said, will combine different fields of science and technology, such as AI, computation, robotics and more, in an interdisciplinary environment that aims to drive new research breakthroughs and attract future faculty.
“This is a different way to think about a lab,” Davis said. “It’s not an engineering building. It’s not a natural sciences building. (It’s) not owned, as we use that term (for a) college or school. Instead, this will be a University lab building designed to bring different disciplines together to address challenges that require a team.”
The Frontiers of Science Building will be the first research facility at the University that is independent from any existing academic units. Davis announced the building as one of three major projects underway at the University, the others being the new UT Dell Medicine health system and the University College created to oversee the revised core curriculum.
“These are the three big things happening here at the University of Texas at Austin: putting patients at the center, putting the challenge at the center of research, putting the students at the center of academics,” Davis said.
Davis said the building will integrate technology into its operations in what he described as a “lab building of the future.”
“Here, the mission is to solve a challenge,” Davis said. “This is the time to bring our strengths together, to solve problems bigger than any one discipline.”
