The University of Idaho will start construction on its first academic building in over a decade, next summer. The three-story Integrated Research and Innovation Center will cost $50 million and occupy the grass field between the College of Natural Resources and Brink Hall.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Helena Mendes-Soares pipettes bacterial cultures Thursday in the Life Sciences bulding. The University of Idaho will be starting construction on the Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) next summer to promote reserach between disciplines.
“It’s a tangible and thoughtful and meaningful recognition that research matters,” said James Foster, UI professor of biological studies.
The IRIC will not be an ordinary research building. Instead it will be a shared space between multiple research departments.
Jack McIver, vice president of research and economic development, said IRIC is intended to house large research projects from multiple disciplines.
“The building is intended, as the name says, to put projects in there that are multidisciplinary — in other words integrated research,” McIver said. “So the types of projects that are going in there could be all over the place, but I’m hoping that we get social sciences, bench scientists, engineers together to address larger types of problems.”
McIver said bringing people together from different fields of study is key for innovation and can provide new perspectives.
“You don’t see many biologists talking to many sociologists typically,” McIver said. “When you get these people talking to each other, it’s surprising how you get an idea from someone who know(s) nothing about what you’re doing.”
Foster agreed and said collaboration between disciplines is important to addressing large problems.
“The motivation is to get people talking to each other, who wouldn’t normally talk to each other, and I think that’s a really important thing for a small university like ours,” Foster said.
McIver said IRIC will house approximately six projects at a time, but has the potential to change based on the size of the projects. He said IRIC will be a rotating laboratory where research projects will come in for a few years and vacate once the project comes to a finish or reaches a logical conclusion. Researchers would not lose current lab space if they decide to take part in IRIC, McIver said.
Design features
McIver said the internal design features are planned to promote collaboration between researchers, and offer up to date technology — including a visualization space.
“A big visualization space that can open up, and we can do anything from motion capture, which could be humans or robotics, be it fine arts or manipulations with robotics,” McIver said. “But it’s also a space where people get in and look at large amounts of things going on.”
McIver said there will be two core facilities that will hold specialized lab instruments that will be open to all researchers on campus.
He said the equipment is usually more expensive to purchase and maintain, but will be a valuable addition to the building.
At an open forum last month on IRIC, many faculty raised concerns with how the university will pay for expensive research equipment.
Larry Forney, director of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, said he does not know where the money would come from to purchase the expensive equipment to carry out projects.
“Anybody I work with in my department would depend on those details. And they’re not cheap, right? I mean setting up a biology research laboratory … $150,000, $200,000,” Forney said at the open forum. “What happens when my time is up to all that equipment? Because essentially you have to duplicate my lab.”
McIver said his department is going through an evaluation process to determine which core facilities will be the most beneficial to researchers, and said the facilities would be well kept and supported.
He said the building would be intended as extra space to bring in new projects, and would not duplicate existing machinery.
McIver said most offices will not be permanent — except for post-doctorate students who could have permanent offices if the need arises.
McIver said laboratories will be open to allow more faculty to work in a given space and communicate easier with other researchers.
Because of the open lab design, some projects will not be allowed in IRIC due to their specialized nature.
“They are designed that we can work up to a certain level with biological agents, or chemical agents, we’re not going to be able to get everything in the building. You simply can’t build a building for a reasonable price to do that,” McIver said.
Choosing projects and concerns
McIver said the Office of Research and Economic Development will request proposals from researchers across campus and set up a selection process with input from faculty and deans.
However, some faculty have expressed concern with the selection process.
“The procedures for determining who’s going to use the building aren’t there yet … it’s a very serious concern,” Foster said. “Every single person I’ve spoken to is worried about that.”
Foster said many faculty — including himself — cannot plan projects if they do not have information as to how this building is to be used.
“I can’t even imagine what projects might go there, until I know what objective they are trying to meet, how are they going to meet those objectives, how are they going to measure their success,” Foster said. “Until the nuts and bolts planning is in place, I can’t think about it much.”
McIver said his department will be looking for projects that bring a lot of people together to address a large problem, and the projects should be collaborative in nature. He said projects that receive substantial funding are more likely to be picked, however IRIC will also be used as an innovation center, so extensive funding is not needed to be selected.
Foster said communication between the Department of Research and Economic Development and professors has been minimal.
“We haven’t even been asked what sort of projects would you like to see in there,” Foster said. “When you don’t have information people make up stuff, and they start worrying about things that aren’t there, so there has been a lot of rumors going around.”
Financing IRIC
Raymond Pankopf, director of architectural and engineering services, said the total project budget is $50 million and funding will come from a variety of sources. He said $5 million will come from state of Idaho, $15 million in private donations and $30 million in loans through bond activity.
Chris Murray, vice president for university advancement, said fundraising for a university building presents different challenges than for a typical research building.
“It’s a university building, raising money is a little more challenging because typically you go to those constituencies and say ‘you graduated from business, we’re building a new building, would you help?’ So it’s been a little bit more of a challenge,” Murray said.
Pankopf said the IRIC project is still in the design and development phase, but the project is on track to start construction by June 2014 and finish construction the summer of 2016.
Pankopf said once the architecture plans are finished, they will be sent to the Idaho State Board of Education for approval.
“There are a bunch of gateways we have to get through,” Pankopf said.
UI Facilities has hired NBBJ — an international architecture firm — for the design plans, and Hoffman Construction, a Portland based construction management team, to lead the construction process.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]