This Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program (ARFMP) award from the Research Facilities Office provides funds to Colorado State University for the relocation of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) which houses interdisciplinary ecological sciences research and research training activities to the Biochemistry and Radiation Biology Building. The Biochemistry and Radiation Biology building was constructed in 1947 and last renovated in 1987. The relocation is fully justified and cost- effective. The ARFMP grant of $360,000 and $542,121 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 by relocating NREL to another space, which is being completely repaired and renovated, in the old Biochemistry and Radiation Biology Building and thus providing a research and research training space adequate in size and design and complete with new wiring, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), and fume hoods that are adequate to accommodate the quantity, quality, and diversity of research conducted in this burgeoning program. The Center for Analysis of the Dynamics of Regional Ecosystems (CADRE), a multi-institutional and transdisciplinary center of excellence in the ecological and atmospheric sciences, has just been approved by the University. The strength and the experience of the research institute, NREL, which will be enhanced by this project, is one of the cornerstones upon which CADRE is being built. 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 in an expanding program in ecosystems research that is of regional, national, and international importance. This project will assist in the fulfillment of the University of Colorado's commitment to enhance research on the effects of climate on arid and semi-arid ecosystems through training of future scientists with a holistic view of atmosphere-biosphere interactions.
