Michigan State University (MSU) is currently undertaking a master planning exercise to ensure that state-of- the-art facilities continue to be used to house laboratory animals for research and teaching. Several of the laboratory animal facilities are reaching the age where they will require upgrades and the institution will make selective investments based on the use, condition and long-term viability of the facility, thus not all facilities will continue to be invested in resulting in discontinued use for animal housing. An initial conclusion from this study is that our premier animal care facility, the Clinical Center Animal Facility (CCAF), will require renovation of the engineering systems. The CCAF is the major laboratory animal facility at MSU used to support the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research. Following these upgrades the facility will support the research of over 46 faculty members. MSU will match the NIH funding in excess of a 3:1 ratio. The proposed project focuses on upgrading the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system of the CCAF. Although almost 35 years old, the CCAF is an extremely well-designed facility. The layout of the facility is flexible to accommodate a wide variety of research and can be expanded horizontally or vertically for future growth. There is a full height interstitial space above each of the floors allowing this HVAC upgrade project to be carried out cost effectively. The CCAF HVAC system is original and nearing the end of its reliable lifespan. This renovation project will replace the current aged components, and add redundancy and central alarming of the system. The proposed renovation will ensure that tight environmental controls are maintained for optimal animal health and welfare and reliable research data, by replacing the aging HVAC equipment and ensuring redundancy should the new equipment malfunction or during times of planned maintenance. Once upgraded, this facility will provide space during renovation and maintenance of some of the smaller campus animal facilities, housing for animals in facilities deemed not optimal to renovate, and to accommodate the research of new faculty in the areas of regenerative medicine, neuroscience, and infectious disease, molecular mechanisms of disease, biomedical engineering and gastroenterology /microbial ecology. MSU is a public, land-grant institution designated as a Research-Extensive university by the Carnegie Foundation. The first institution of higher learning in the United States to teach scientific agriculture, MSU offers more than 200 programs of study offered by 17 degree-granting colleges that attract scholars worldwide. As a comprehensive research university, MSU has 5,000 faculty and academic staff, 6,300 support staff, more than 36,400 undergraduate and nearly 10,800 graduate and professional students. Total enrollment for 2009- 2010 exceeded 47,200, making MSU one of the ten largest universities in the United States.
