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The University of 51С�Ƴ� has received $5 million in federal funding to support construction of the new Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences on the Portland Campus, a pivotal step in relocating the 51С�Ƴ�College of Osteopathic Medicine (51С�Ƴ�COM) to Portland and establishing a comprehensive health sciences campus in Maine’s largest city.

The relocation of 51С�Ƴ�COM from Biddeford will allow 51С�Ƴ�to admit more students to the school and bring together all the University’s health professions programs onto a single, interprofessional campus — an unprecedented model for a single campus in 51С�Ƴ�, in which the students in the state’s only medical school, dental school, and physician assistant program will collaborate directly with their peers in nursing, social work, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dental hygiene, and nurse anesthesia.

The move will also allow 51С�Ƴ�to repurpose much-needed space on its Biddeford campus to grow academic programs that also address critical workforce needs, such as marine sciences, business, and criminology, among others.

The financial support from the newly signed federal omnibus spending bill will help bolster Maine’s health care workforce amid a critical nationwide shortage of nurses and physicians. 

Last May, at the request of Sens. Susan Collins and Bernie Sanders, 51С�Ƴ�President James Herbert testified to a Congressional committee about Maine’s workforce shortages and offered his solutions for the future. Since that time, 51С�Ƴ�has worked with Collins to secure federal funding for the COM relocation project.

“As the nation’s oldest state, Maine cannot afford to lose valuable health care workers like we are seeing nationally,” Herbert remarked. “Merging all of UNE’s health professions programs on one, integrated campus will support Maine’s health care infrastructure for years to come, and I am beyond grateful for Sen. Collins’ unwavering support of 51С�Ƴ�and its role in making Maine a healthier place.”

This new funding comes in addition to a transformative $30 million gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation to support construction the new COM facility, establishment of a new Institute for Interprofessional Education and Practice, and the acceleration of high-growth undergraduate and graduate programs on the Biddeford Campus.

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