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.

[8] 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.,[9][10] The BRC was imagined by former Rice provost, Gene Levy, and former Rice President, Malcolm Gillis.

The design was carefully intentional to incorporate collaborative space in as many ways as possible throughout the building, as can be seen on their project website.

[12] In the nine years the building has been open, a number of Rice University and Texas Medical Center groups have made this space their research home.

They include: The BRC houses numerous instrumentation facilities that are available to research groups from Rice, other universities and neighboring hospitals within the Texas Medical Center, and industry.