Friday, November 06, 2009
Sciences receive grant for wet labs
MSUM’s science department received $700,000 in grant money to build new wet labs.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the City of Moorhead’s Economic Development Authority partnered in giving the grant
to MSUM.
The new wet labs will be built in the basement of the Science Lab building, and they will allow students to take courses that are now unavailable because the correct facilities are not present.
EDA approved the $350,000 grant if DEED would match the amount, said Dan Kirk, the vice president of administrations and facilities.
“It’s fairly unique that DEED would fund an on campus development,” said Mark Wallert, professor of biosciences at MSUM. “It is designed to help businesses in the community.”
According to DEED’s Web site, “It is the state’s principal economic development agency...The agency’s mission is to support the economic success of individuals, businesses, and communities by improving opportunities for growth.”
“The City of Moorhead had to have a law changed to allow MSUM to apply directly to DEED (for the grant),” Wallert said.
“The request to DEED actually occurred this past summer,” Kirk said. “Prior to this year, the DEED program that funds these requests didn’t allow investment in state or MnSCU properties.”
The greater Fargo-Moorhead economic development corporation made the whole process possible, Wallert said.
“They went through a strategic planning process and identified what parts of the economy to grow in the Fargo Moorhead,” Wallert said. “The area picked was technology. The strategic plan puts us leaps and bounds ahead of other Minnesota communities in this area. That plan was the ground work for applying for grants like (DEED’s),” Wallert said.
“We want these new wet labs specifically designed for those interested in industry positions, or are already in the industry,” Wallert said. “(The new wet labs) will allow the Science Lab to teach courses that are currently beyond our capacity. The new wet labs are specifically designed to train students to work in biochemistry industries. We also expect students that already work in local F-M (science) industries to be enrolled in courses to work in the labs for further training.”
The $700,000 grant will build two wet labs and a restroom in the basement of the Science Lab building.
“We have shell space, or unfinished space, in the basement,” Wallert said. “We’re going to fix up some of the unfinished space.”
Space was left undeveloped for later expansion, when the Science Lab was built.
“One of the labs will be used for teaching regulated industry classes,” Wallert said.
Students will learn how to work under the heavy restrictions of government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wallert said.
“It requires special training to (work under) that type of oversight,” Wallert said. The other lab will be designed for small animal research, Wallert said.
“We’ll be engaging an architectural firm to design the two labs and expect to put the project out to bid in the spring of next year,” Kirk said. “So (we’ll) probably begin construction late spring next year.”
The new wet labs are not expected to be ready for classes by fall semester of 2010. But they should be ready by January of 2011, Kirk said.
“We’ll try to execute it as quickly as we can,” Kirk said. “Part of the work will be coordinating the use and impact on the rest of the building.”
To find out more about DEED, go to http://www.deed.state.mn.us/agency/index.ht.