Research and Development

South Dakota State University dedicated the $7.5 million Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building in Brookings in May of 2009. Housing classrooms, laboratories, study rooms, and faculty offices for the College of Engineering, the 43,052-gsf instructional facility features a micro- and nano-electronics cleanroom. The top level of the four-story building provides R&D space for industry partners. Construction began on the project in mid-2007.

The Canadian government has allocated $34.7 million to support renovations and upgrades at four federal laboratories in Winnipeg. The Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health will receive $24.2 million for facility renovations. The Freshwater Institute will receive $1 million, Health Canada’s Manitoba Regional Laboratory will receive $5.5 million, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s forensic science lab will receive $4 million. The funding is part of the Canada’s $250 million Economic Action Plan.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health announced plans in May of 2009 to build a flu vaccine research and production facility. The laboratory will eventually manufacture a single human vaccine for swine and avian flu viruses. A flu vaccine laboratory is currently under construction at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java. Construction began on a flu vaccine facility at the PT Biofarma campus in Bandung in May of 2009.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology received $610 million in federal stimulus funding for research and construction in May of 2009. $360 million will support construction projects at NIST research facilities. The 120,000-sf precision measurement laboratory under construction in Boulder will receive $68.5 million. The facility is expected to reach completion in 2012. The $2 million Net-Zero-Energy Residential Test Facility and a $7 million Fire and Police Services facility will be built in Gaithersburg, Md.

Medtronic will open the 150,000-sf Diabetes Therapy Management and Education Center in San Antonio in late summer of 2009. Medtronic will hire approximately 1,400 employees during a five-year period to staff the new facility. The LEED Silver certified building will enable the medical technology company to expand its diabetes products research and manufacturing operations.

Globalfoundries, a subsidiary of Advanced Micro Devices, will break ground in summer of 2009 on a $4.5 billion chip manufacturing plant in Malta, N.Y. The 1.3 million-sf Fab4X will be located on 223 acres in the Luther Forest Technology Park and is expected to begin production in 2012. The project will include 300,000-sf of cleanroom facilities and will employ over 1,400 people.

Construction on Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) was completed in spring of 2009. Located in the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, the 1,200 million yuan project was built in 52 months. Now fully operational, the 200,000-sm synchrotron radiation light source houses three accelerators.

Novus International’s $20 million global headquarters in St. Charles, Mo., attained LEED Gold sustainable design certification in late April of 2009. The 90,000-sf facility began construction in August of 2007 and was completed in January of 2009. Comprised of 48,000-sf of new construction and 42,000-sf of renovation, the project consolidates the Global Headquarters and International Research Center into a single facility housing 10 labs, offices, conference and meeting rooms, and a training center.

DuPont opened its photovoltaic technical center in Shanghai, China, in May of 2009. Located at the company’s global R&D center, the facility will support materials development for crystalline silicon photovoltaic products. Housing three laboratories, the center will accommodate cell to module manufacturing, metallization, and module and reliability testing. Total facility investment at the DuPont’s China R&D Center to date is estimated at $25 million.

National University of Ireland, Maynooth broke ground on a €15m research building in May of 2009. Located on the North Campus, the 4,500-sm facility will house the National Centre for Geocomputation, the National Institute for Research and Spatial Analysis, and An Foras Feasa, the Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions. The project will accommodate 350 students and 200 academic staff and researchers and is slated for completion in June of 2010. The building will include interdisciplinary research space and a 350-seat lecture hall.

Florida Atlantic University will initiate construction in spring of 2010 on the Harbor Branch Research Laboratory II in St. Lucie, Fla. Designed by PGAL with RFD (Research Facilities Design) as laboratory design consultant, the 40,000-gsf project will house research labs, lab support, and offices. The facility will provide 16,500-nsf of state-of-the-art laboratory space and will be built to meet LEED Silver sustainable design criteria.

Texas A&M University will begin construction on a new campus in Killeen in fall of 2010. Sited on 672 acres, Texas A&M University-Central Texas will be built on land transferred from the U.S. Army. Completion of the first 150,000-sf classroom and office building is slated for late 2011. The project will enable Tarleton State University to become part of the A&M system. Tarleton State University will change its name to Texas A&M University-Central Texas and will issue $25 million in bonds to fund construction of the new campus.

Roche opened a $4.4 million pharmaceutical research facility in Madison, Wis., in April of 2009. The project involved renovation of a 24,000-sf building in the University of Madison Research Park to house R&D laboratories for the study of RNA interference and gene therapy. The facility will house 45 employees.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is building the $105 million Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Md. Housing BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4 laboratories for select agent and infectious disease research, the IRF will provide 11,125-sf of secure research space for 30 investigators. The building will feature PET, CT, MRI, and X-ray scanners to study the effects of infectious diseases on primates. The construction manager for the project is Gilbane Building Company.

The Department of Energy will break ground in May of 2009 on a neutrino laboratory near International Falls, Minn. Housing physics research for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Minnesota, the $250 million facility is supported by $40.1 million funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The facility will be named NuMI Off-Axis Electron Neutrino Appearance and will include a neutrino detector and laboratory sunk 40 feet below ground.