03/04/2010

Teamwork Brings in $14.4 Million for New Research, Innovation Center

When College of Agriculture Dean Richard Guthrie instructed John Liu in July 2008 to devote his complete and undivided attention to writing a proposal, due a mere 14 days later, to compete for a substantial federal grant that would mean a new research facility at Auburn, Liu took that “complete” and “undivided” literally.

The associate director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and associate dean of research for the College of Ag quickly assembled a highly proficient support team that worked with him on the proposal almost round the clock for the next two weeks to produce a detailed, budget-inclusive grant application that arrived in Washington just as the final buzzer sounded.

That all-out, fast-track effort paid off last fall, when the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded Auburn University $14.4 million in federal stimulus funds as cost-share support to build a state-of-the-art Center for Advanced Science, Innovation and Commerce.

The university will provide matching funds to construct the 68,000-square-foot, 21-lab facility at the Auburn Research Park on South College Street. Five multidisciplinary “research clusters” will be located in the center and will bring scientists from a variety of disciplines across the campus together to collaborate on research projects aimed at improving standards, measurements and forecasting related to food safety, bioenergy technologies, aquaculture development and sustainability, and water and environmental quality.

Liu, who in addition to his administrative positions in the College of Ag and AAES is an Auburn fisheries professor and an internationally known fish geneticist, has written many successful grant proposals throughout his career, but the seasoned grantsman says this one never would have seen the light of day had it not been for the expertise and diligence of those who partnered with him to make it happen.

In addition to Liu, the core grant-writing team included college/AAES CFO Lane Sauser and contract and grants specialist Kelley Terry, AAES outlying units director Jim Bannon and university architect and facilities design director Greg Parsons.

Many others across campus, however, contributed to the success, and the leadership that Auburn President Jay Gogue, Provost Mary Ellen Mazey, Vice President for Research John Mason and Guthrie provided; the cost-share commitment Executive Vice President Don Large made; and the information and assistance Brian Keeter, public affairs director, supplied were “crucially important,” Liu says.

Parsons remains highly involved in this early stage of the project, Liu says, and an advisory committee that includes Auburn professors Don Conner in poultry science, Claude Boyd in fisheries, Steve Taylor in biosystems engineering and Graeme Lockaby in forestry and wildlife sciences is providing valuable input.

Though the College of Agriculture and AAES played the major role in the grant-writing process, Liu stresses that the center will not be a facility for college and Experiment Station scientists exclusively.

“It is an Auburn University facility that is being built to bring together researchers that are working in the same areas but are scattered across the campus,” he says.

The new research center is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012.

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Contact: Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

OFFICE OF AG COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 COMER HALL, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)
AgComm@auburn.edu