New Jersey Innovation Institute Joins Liberty Science Center's SciTech Scity as Innovation Lead Partner

JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 9, 2024 – Liberty Science Center and New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) announced today that New Jersey Innovation Institute, a New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) corporation and nonprofit headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, is joining the Healthcare Innovation Engine at SciTech Scity as a Lead Innovation Partner.

SciTech Scity, the “Science City of Tomorrow” being developed by Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, will be a 30-acre innovation campus devoted to using science and technology to address humanity’s greatest challenges, from inadequate healthcare to climate change, and create a better future for all.

NJII joins SciTech Scity partners RWJ Barnabas Health, Bristol Myers Squibb, EY (Ernst & Young), Nokia Bell Labs, and Sheba Medical Center in Israel on a comprehensive multidisciplinary effort to advance the use of new digital home health technologies to pioneer and spearhead new and more cost-effective methods of delivering care for underserved communities in New Jersey and beyond, and to elevate startups working on the biggest problems in healthcare.

Located in Jersey City at the heart of New York harbor, near the Statue of Liberty, and building on the exposure to the more than 750,000 annual visitors to Liberty Science Center and six million to Liberty State Park, SciTech Scity will spearhead an effort to drive a new type of open innovation. On February 29, 2024, SciTech Scity hosted the inaugural meeting of SciTech Scity’s Healthcare Innovation Engine, gathering leaders from the healthcare industry, government, and academia. The group identified specific medical challenges and will prototype and test solutions in cardiovascular health for the first of its ongoing pilot initiatives.

Liberty Science Center President and CEO, Paul Hoffman, says NJII is the perfect partner, given its leadership in healthcare interoperability and work commercializing technologies and accelerating startups. Alex Richter, Executive Director and Head of SciTech Innovation Hub, further elaborated, “New Jersey Innovation Institute has been a leader in healthcare transformation in the state of New Jersey. We are thrilled to embark on this journey alongside NJII as they’ve demonstrated a shared commitment to driving innovation in healthcare and bringing early stage technologies to market.”

NJII brings a unique perspective to the Healthcare Innovation Engine Roundtable. Founded as a corporation of NJIT, NJII aims to foster collaboration between academia and industry and brings to bear the technological and intellectual resources of NJIT. Its healthcare division is the state-designated entity responsible for operating and managing the New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN) on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services. NJII is also partnered with DHS for the Substance Use Disorder Promoting Interoperability Program (SUD PIP), with the goal of enhancing coordination among substance use disorder providers and healthcare systems by providing them increased access to EHR and promoting interoperability among them, critically enhancing New Jersey’s strategy to address the opioid crisis.

NJII works with other SciTech Scity lead partners, including the Hospital Lead Partner, RWJ Barnabas Health, to help them participate in promoting state-wide interoperability. NJII also offers technical and strategic services for providers and health systems in NJ supporting Merit-based Incentive Pay System (MIPS) and Quality Improvement programs, QIP-NJ.

The partnership also reflects NJIIs’s expertise in technology commercialization and startup acceleration. In addition to catalyzing technology from New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJII launched the Merck Digital Sciences Studio in collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc., supporting early-stage biomedical startups with direct investment.

By joining the Healthcare Innovation Engine, NJII is extending and amplifying its impact, accelerating the translation of innovation ideals into real-world solutions. Jennifer D’Angelo, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of the Healthcare Division at NJII commented, “We are excited to partner with SciTech Scity’s Healthcare Innovation Engine. The partnership marks a pivotal moment for NJII as we continue our mission to drive innovation in healthcare and unlock new opportunities to shape a brighter future for patients and providers.”

About SciTech Scity
Liberty Science Center is developing a “Science City of Tomorrow” in Jersey City—a 30-acre innovation campus called SciTech Scity devoted to using science and technology to address humanity’s greatest challenges, from inadequate healthcare to climate change, and create a better future for all of us. The new campus, including the existing Liberty Science Center, home of the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, will be officially named the Frank J. Guarini Innovation Campus and is scheduled to open in 2025 and 2026.

SciTech Scity will include $450 million of new construction: Edge Works, an eight-story business creation center with laboratories, R&D spaces, office suites, co-working spaces, a tech exhibition gallery, and a state-of-the-art conference center; Scholars Village, 500 apartments built and operated by Alpine Residential for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, and other tech-forward individuals and families; Liberty Science Center High School, a new public magnet STEM high school built by the Hudson County Improvement Authority and operated by the Hudson County Schools of Technology; and Public Commons, three acres of outdoor space for art installations, food trucks, performances, farmers markets, science festivals, and maker fairs.

Learn more at SciTechScity.com.

About Liberty Science Center
Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is a 300,000-square-foot, not-for-profit learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. Dedicated to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers and bringing the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology to learners of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, live simulcast surgeries, a tornado-force wind simulator, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs. More than 250,000 students visit the Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participate in the Center’s off-site and online programs. Welcoming more than 750,000 visitors annually, LSC is the largest cultural institution in New Jersey and the largest interactive science center in the NYC-NJ metropolitan area.

About New Jersey Innovation Institute
New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) is a 501c3 organization wholly owned by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). As an independent corporation, NJII is uniquely positioned to be agile, entrepreneurial, and opportunistic. NJII is focused on accelerating technology and fostering innovation to have a positive economic impact in New Jersey. To date, NJII has generated over $330M in revenue during its ten years of operation across its four divisions (Healthcare, Defense, Continued Learning, Entrepreneurship) and today has a team of 120 staff. Learn more: https://www.njii.com/about/.