How The Beaty Came to Be
The biological collections that are the centrepiece of the Beaty
Biodiversity Centre were each started by a different collector, some as early as the 1910s. Over the decades, the collections
were added to by myriad researchers, and grew to contain over 2 million specimens. In 2001, researchers at the Biodiversity
Research Centre envisioned a building that would facilitate interdisciplinary work on biodiversity and house UBC's
biodiversity researchers and collections. Six years later, with funding from the BC
Knowledge Development Fund, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and
Ross and Trisha Beaty, we broke ground for the construction of the Beaty Biodiversity Centre. These leadership gifts have brought us a
substantial way to completion; for information on how you can help to make the Museum a reality, visit our
Support page.
Museums that make scientific collections available for public viewing are rare, and funding for this project was provided by two
institutions that are dedicated to funding cutting-edge research and teaching in Canada. The BC Knowledge Development Fund provides
funding for facilities and research equipment for public post-secondary institutions, teaching hospitals and affiliated non-profit
agencies. The CFI is an independent corporation created in 1997 by the Government of Canada, and its mission is to increase Canada's
research capacity by funding state-of-the-art research infrastucture such as equipment, buildings, labs, and databases.
Ross and Trisha Beaty, UBC alumni and local philanthropists, contributed both finances and vision to the Centre. It was their
suggestion to make the collections available to the public that created the Museum. The Biodiversity Centre is the Beatys' second museum; they also helped found the Pacific Mineral Museum (now the
Pacific Museum of the Earth).
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