This Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program (ARFMP) award from the Research Facilities Office provides funds to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for the renovation and repair of two buildings at its Philadelphia headquarters, the Research Wing, which houses the Academy's biological research collections, and the Main Building, which houses research and research training activities in aquatic ecology and systematic and evolutionary biology. These buildings were constructed, respectively, in 1978 and in 1872. The newer of the two buildings has never been renovated and the older one was last renovated in 1980. The ARFMP grant of $200,000 and $350,900 provided by the grantee as cost sharing will be used to modernize these research and research training facilities. This project will address the need to improve the current research infrastructure in terms of health and safety as well as of the quality of research that can be conducted by renovating the ventilation systems in both of the buildings. These renovations will enable the continuation of current laboratory research activities; contribute to the preservation of the integrity of laboratory experiments and to the control of adverse effects of air quality, relative humidity, and temperature on the systematics collections; and permit the implementation of new activities involving radioisotopes and carcinogens. This award contributes to the infrastructure of science by providing an improved environment for the conduct of research and for the training of quality undergraduate and graduate students. Students trained in these laboratories are in demand in both basic and applied research fields. In addition, the project will contribute to the Academy of Natural Sciences' efforts directed toward human resources pipeline issues which involve working with pre-college students.
