The Department of Energy is planning research infrastructure upgrades to multiple user facilities. The U.S. House of Representatives passed three bills in November of 2017 to provide funding for these projects.
The Research Infrastructure Act directs and authorizes the Secretary of Energy to:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture broke ground in November of 2017 on a $160 million renovation and expansion of the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Ga. The secure facility will provide biocontainment laboratories to support the detection, diagnosis, and prevention of diseases such as pathogenic avian influenza. Completion is expected by 2020. Merrick & Company developed the Program of Requirements (POR) for the project, which could add approximately 100,000 sf to the 60-year-old campus.
NASA awarded AECOM a contract in September of 2017 to provide support services for Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The scope of the contract, which has a maximum value of $58.3 million and a one-year base period with four one-year options, includes facility master planning, facility engineering design, energy and water conservation program management, and property utilization oversight.
Nasa Ames Research Center broke ground in August of 2017 on the $40 million Biosciences Collaboration Facility at Moffett Field in northern California. The two-story, 40,000-sf facility will provide 19,000 sf of BSL-2 wet labs and support and 21,000 sf of office and conference space. Designed for ease of reconfiguration, the project will include interdisciplinary research areas, procedure rooms, a radiation lab, environmental rooms, and a tissue culture suite.
The United States Senate’s Committee on Appropriations approved a bipartisan bill in early September that provides $36.1 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2018, representing a $2 billion increase from 2017. The House of Representatives approved a $1.1 billion increase in NIH funding, with the actual amount expected to be closer to that allocated by the Senate bill.
NASA opened the 118,000-sf Human Health and Performance Laboratory in late July of 2017 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Designed by HDR to consolidate and replace several existing facilities, the biomedical research building provides 250 open workstations, 44 offices, 17 labs, and a variety of meeting and conference rooms. The flexible three-story project was designed to be easily reconfigurable to accommodate programmatic changes.
Merrick & Company will support the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate in the development of operational planning, IT infrastructure, biorepository transfer, and acquisition of future contracts for stand-up and operation of the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) now under construction in Manhattan, Kansas.
The University of Kansas is engaged in a $4 million renovation project to create the National Security Laboratory in Lawrence. Sited on the basement level of the Bioscience and Technology Business Center on the West Campus, the 7,000-sf facility will support collaborative research with the Department of Defense and other government agencies on radar, remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles, signal processing, and sensors. The secure laboratory will accommodate up to 40 employees and is expected to open in spring of 2018.
The State of Idaho will begin construction in mid-2017 on two new research facilities at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls. The 80,000-sf Cybercore Integration Center will accommodate cybersecurity research, development, and education. The 67,000-sf Collaborative Computing Center will house a supercomputer for advanced simulation and modeling operations. The estimated construction cost of both facilities is $75 million. The new centers will be owned by the state of Idaho and leased by INL, which is managed by Battelle.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory broke ground in late January of 2017 on the $91.5 million Integrative Genomics Building in Berkeley, Calif. Designed by SmithGroup, the four-story, 82,604-gsf facility will house approximately 300 researchers and staff from the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and the Systems Biology Knowledgebase.
The State of Georgia will break ground in spring of 2017 on the $100 million Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training in Augusta. Located next to Augusta University’s planned Riverfront Campus, the 332,000-sf facility will enable researchers from academia, industry, government, and the military to collaboratively develop innovative cybersecurity technologies.
NASA Glenn Research Center is planning to begin construction in summer of 2018 on the Research Support Building (RSB) on its Lewis Field campus. Designed by TEN Arquitectos to promote collaboration, the 75,000-sf facility will act as a new campus center, offering conference rooms, a cafeteria, and office space for 240 employees. Occupancy is expected in 2020.
NASA will construct the Measurement Systems Laboratory at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Supporting the creation of advanced instrumentation and systems engineering solutions, the 175,000-gsf facility will consolidate laser and electromagnetics labs that are currently dispersed across the campus into a central core facility. The $95.6 million construction contract has been awarded to WM Jordan, working in collaboration with construction manager Hill International. Completion is expected in late 2019.
The U.S. Department of Energy opened the Laboratory for Plasma Nanosynthesis in July of 2016 in New Jersey. Located on the Forrestal Campus of Princeton University, the project represents an expansion of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and provides three times as much research space as the original facility.
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics has released a report showing that federal agencies obligated $30.8 billion to 996 academic institutions for science and engineering activities in Fiscal Year 2014, the most recent year for which such information is available. This represents a six percent increase over the previous year and the first increase in such funding since FY2009.
