The ISU Plant Sciences Institute administrators have big plans for the $3 million gift they received, including the construction of a co-laboratory.

The donation, given by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, was announced Jan. 25.

“We are delighted to receive a gift that makes possible the construction of a new building on campus that will allow for the institute to move forward in the right direction,” said Colin Scanes, interim director of the Plant Sciences Institute.

The project was approved at the September Board of Regents meeting, and officials can now begin planning a new building on the ISU campus.

Scanes, associate dean of agriculture, said Carver Trust representatives wanted to help advance the institute.

“The Carver Trust wanted to see Iowa State move forward in the plant sciences department, particularly in the area of plant genomics,” he said.

Plant genomics deals with the genetic mapping of plant genes to improve crops and determine the diversity that crop breeding depends on.

The co-laboratory will house administrative and faculty offices and laboratories for the Plant Sciences Institute.

“The Carver Co-Laboratory will provide students, faculty, scientists and industry with an environment designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on leading-edge research in the fundamental plant sciences,” Scanes said.

The center will attract the best minds in the field along with providing a mechanism for increasing the focus on the fundamentals and appliances of plant sciences, he said.

The institute is made up of eight centers located throughout campus: the Center for Plant Genomics, the Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics, the Center for Plant Transformation and Gene Expression, the Center for Plant Breeding, the Center for Designer Crops, the Center for Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses, the Center for Crop Utilization Research and the Center for Seed Science.

Troy Ross, executive administrator of the Carver Trust, said the goals of the Carver Trust and the institute are similar.

“The co-laboratory’s focus on combining education, research and technological development accurately reflects Mr. [Roy] Carver’s commitment to the advancement of scientific knowledge,” Ross said.

He said this focus on advancing knowledge is the reason trust representatives were attracted to the Plant Sciences Institute.

“For this reason, we are pleased that this facility will bear Mr. Carver’s name and will house the endeavors that will assist in furthering his vision,” Ross said.

The Carver Charitable Trust was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist. He died in 1981.