Building and expanding seems to be the name of the game with Boston universities these days. And science is often a big part of those expansion plans.

Boston College, which has had to live in the shadow of other big universities in the city, is trying to emerge from that shadow. It has announced a $1.6 billion plan to build, renovate, expand the campus size, create new research institutes and hire up to 100 new faculty members over the next 10 years. One of these new research centers will be the Institute for Integrated Sciences, to “enhance interdisciplinary collaboration among physics, chemistry and biology faculty.” According to the Globe , this will be BC’s largest and most important initiative in its 144-year history.

A quick roundup of other local expansion plans:

Harvard is progressing with its Allston campus. Latest development : after years of negotiations, Harvard has bought the land on which the Charlesview Apartments sit. That area will become part of the new campus and the apartments will move to another location.

MIT is on a $750 building boom, including a new cancer building.

And BU also wants to compete with the top schools…in October, it announced its $1.8 billion plan, including the hiring of up to 150 new faculty.