Largest Research Center in NJ to open in 2015: Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health
Topic: COMMUNITY INTEREST
Largest Research Center in NJ to open in 2015: Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health
The Institute is a new, interdisciplinary initiative that co-locates and aligns Rutgers' key centers and academic excellence strategically to address critical issues related to food, nutrition, and health. It is their goal that the Institute's transformative work will focus on how the country's major health issues are affected by developmental nutrition so that, in a generation's time, the Institute's work will help residents of New Jersey counter the debilitating effects of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, and reverse the trend of the rising number of individuals suffering from these diseases. It is slated to open in the summer of 2015.
Located on the George H. Cook campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, the Institute will be rooted in New Jersey where demographics allow for national replication. New Jersey's diverse population, varied landscape, geographic location, and pharmaceutical and service industries make it a natural location for scientists interested in developing local, regional, national, and global solutions for lowering the incidence of chronic illnesses. The nutrition, wellness, and fitness programs created there will serve as models for other areas in the United States. We envision the facility to be a physical nexus that brings together.
Diverse, but like-minded stakeholders (i.e., faculty, researchers, community leaders, health educators) who advance and accelerate research, educate the next generation of scholar-leaders and community health advocates, and support the community
Flexible space that fosters and encourages research, teaching, and outreach to address the national health care crisis, and community connections for wellness programs and after-school activities, as well as nutrition and fitness demonstrations where Rutgers has a solid track record.
The construction of this three-story building (approximately 75,000 gross square feet), will include wet and dry laboratories, student health clinic, human performance laboratory, clinical nutritional research center, shared core instrumentation facilities, healthy eating courtyard, nutritional preschool, computing facilities, faculty and administrative offices, 'smart' lecture halls, nutritional resource center, community common space, and flexible spaces to accommodate the changing needs of the program. It will be, at minimum, a certified LEED-gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) facility.
Their community partners and relevant Rutgers Cooperative Extension personnel (Rutgers faculty and staff who are actively engaged in the delivery of science-based educational and outreach programs with a nutrition and wellness focus throughout all 21 counties in New Jersey) will utilize the facility as well. The community space will encompass a breath of initiatives and program concepts including a conference center to hold national and international symposia; an innovative restaurant facility that will be used as a community learning center and teaching laboratory; a flexible clinical service unit to support the mission of science-based education and outreach as it relates to food, nutrition and health including a diet and exercise core curriculum involving parents and their children; an exercise and human performance teaching and research center to study the interdependence of diet and exercise in order to optimize personal health and wellness; and an interactive student learning center that will provide elementary age students and above with nutrition/health learning experiences with computer interfaces.
Smart board technology will be coupled with a communications studio to facilitate national and global communications and long distance learning systems. Public spaces will have an inviting atmosphere with sufficient areas for community interaction while providing space for individuals to relax before appointments or between classes
The building will bring together faculty members from complementary programs throughout the University, including Rutgers' renowned departments of food science, nutrition, public policy, pharmacy, exercise science and sport studies, genetics, agriculture, and health sciences research. By co-locating these world-class scholars, Rutgers will create a synergistic environment that fosters the rapid delivery of new, empirically-anchored basic and applied research programs; the creation and dissemination of new policy; and the development of multidisciplinary curricula and continuing education programs that focus on wellness studies, food access, policy, security, and the reduction of chronic illnesses due to obesity. It is anticipated that the construction of this facility will significantly increase student enrollment in the aforementioned programs.
According to Peter Gillies, the institute’s founding director, the idea behind the institute is to create and physical space where research, teaching and outreach to the community can take place. Peter presented details on the research center at a recent Health Care Forum held in NJ.
“We want to bring together scholars who will pursue interdisciplinary research; policymakers who will apply that research to real-world problems associated with food and health; and parents, their children, as well as Rutgers students whose lives can benefit from wellness programs, health education and activities,” said Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, of which the institute is a part.
The Board of Governors awarded the contract to the Joseph A. Natoli Construction Co. of Pine Brook, N.J. The company has worked on several Rutgers projects in the past.
The new building is also located the Cook Campus in New Brunswick, just off Dudley Road, between the Food Science and Foran Hall. It will be three stories high and include 37,198 square feet of research space, 28,263 square feet of community space and 825 square feet of administrative space. The remaining 13,425 square feet will be taken up with mechanical and circulation space.
The new interdisciplinary laboratory space includes a healthy eating courtyard to study human eating behavior and nutrition education, facilities to study food digestion and nutrient metabolism and a human performance lab that focuses on nutrition and exercise. There are also molecular nutrition laboratories, a student health clinic and a learning center for preschool age children as part of the research center for childhood education and nutrition research.
“Everyone associated with the institute is looking forward to being in this new space, which is innovative in its design and perfectly suited to the kind of leading-edge research, teaching and service we expect to produce there,” Gillies said.
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