The first of IBO’s biannual new-laboratory roundups focuses on large new academic buildings and facilities for food testing. In addition, the table on page 6 highlights plans for selected new academic translational-research labs, consumer-products labs and pharmaceutical labs.

Several US universities are building or have plans for science facilities at least 200,000 ft2 in size. The $261 million, 300,000 ft2 Biological Sciences Building at the University of Michigan will hold the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and the museums of Anthropology, Natural History, Paleontology and Zoology. The building space will also include collaborative research labs, classrooms, offices and vivarium services. The facility is due to open by 2019.

New York’s Stony Brook University broke ground on its Medical and Research Translation (MART) building on November 13, 2013. The MART building will accommodate 25 cancer-research labs, a 30-room cancer clinic, a clinical-infusion center and classrooms. At 245,000 ft2 and eight stories in height, the $194 million building will hold up to 250 faculty members who will collaborate with physicians to develop advanced cancer treatments, and biomedical informatics and biomedical imaging technologies. The facility is part of a $423 million project that will expand the University’s facilities for research and clinical services.

Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, broke ground on February 21 on a 220,000 ft2 science and engineering complex. The facility will be used for research and educational purposes, and will include wet, dry and education labs, classrooms and offices. The open design of the building will accommodate interdisciplinary collaboration. The University has invested $225 million in the facility, which will create 700 jobs after its planned opening in fall of 2016.

MIT’s 220,000 ft2 Nano-Materials, Structures and Systems Lab, expected to open in 2018, will cost $350 million and house 2,000 researchers. The new building will include chemistry-teaching laboratories and cleanroom space, and facilitate imaging and microscopy, materials and thin-film growth, numerical design, and prototyping and packaging synthesis.

Outside of the US, plans for food-safety labs have been announced in several countries. New Zealand’s Synlait Milk, producer of infant and adult-nutritional powders, milk powders and specialty products, will open a testing lab in February 2015. The NZD 21.0 million ($17.5 million = NZD 0.83 = $1) facility will increase the company’s current capabilities for testing chemical and physical properties to include microbiological testing. The lab will also support development of new products.

The Chinese government will establish 32 new food-safety centers, according to a December 25, 2013, report by Xinhua. By 2015, the country plans for all of its counties to be covered by provincial and national food-safety labs. Management of the laboratories will be handled by 38 provincial centers for disease prevention and control.

FnBnews.com reported on December 23, 2013, that the State of Gujarat in India will open an INR 45 crore ($7.3 million = INR 62.0 = $1) food-analysis lab in the village of Dethli. According to a February 12 report in The Hindu, India’s Spices Board is also setting up Quality Evaluation Laboratories in Baruipur, West Bengal, and Kandla, Gujurat.

The Agribusiness and Innovation Platform of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in India, will construct five new food-testing labs in Africa. In April 2013, the organization conducted site visits and feasibility studies, and concluded business plans for the labs. The laboratories will be constructed in the Republic of Congo, the Gambia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. The labs in Rwanda and Zimbabwe will each cost about $2 million.