Iowa State may soon become a world leader in plant sciences due to a $2.2 million appropriation that was passed by the Iowa Legislature this month.

The $2.2 million will go toward establishing a plant genetic research center that would bring in additional faculty, new high-tech equipment and greater research opportunities.

This growth would benefit not only the university and its students, but the state as well, said Colin Scanes, associate dean of agriculture.

“We’re all very excited — [this] is big, and it’s of tremendous value, not only to the university, but to the state of Iowa,” he said.

The development of the research center, which is tentatively to be called the Center of Excellence in Fundamental Plant Sciences, will have a favorable impact on the teacher-student ratio in ISU’s plant science program, Scanes said.

More courses will be offered to students in the plant sciences and the reputation of ISU will gain more prestige — which will add value to the degrees of all ISU graduates, he said.

Faculty and committees from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Agriculture and the College of Engineering have teamed up with the Office of the President over the past 18 months to put together the proposal for the center, he said.

The results of the work should start to make movements on campus as early as this summer, Scanes said.

Once the proposal has been officially approved by the regents sometime in July, the ISU community can expect to see that the Center of Excellence will have a “strong impact on students,” said David Topel, dean of the College of Agriculture.

Graduate students will be involved with some of the best research in the country, and undergraduate students will have more opportunities to work on research and find internships on the ISU campus, Topel said.

Also, students will be exposed to international experiences because cooperative research will be a part of the program, Topel said.

By combining the Center of Excellence with other programs, ISU will play a major part in increasing the “competitiveness of Iowa,” said Stanley Johnson, vice provost for Extension.

For example, the research being done through the Center of Excellence, which will be housed in existing buildings on campus, easily combines with such programs as the Department of Agriculture’s Extension 21. Extension 21 is a program that, among other things, helps farmers add value to crops, he said.

Extension 21, which was started up just last year, has already funded about 20 projects having successfully helped Iowa farmers with beef, pork and grain issues, Johnson said.

Research done through the Center of Excellence in Fundamental Plant Sciences will inevitably aid the Extension 21 program because it will “increase the capacities of the university in research in plant sciences [which will increase] the platforms on which you can build larger value-added agriculture,” Johnson said.

Supporting the Center of Excellence financially in subsequent years is one main focus for ISU officials.

Scanes said ISU officials originally intended to ask the state of Iowa for $5 million to start the project, but the regents reduced that amount to $3 million and Gov. Tom Vilsack agreed only to a $2.2 million appropriation.

Next year, the university most likely will propose a $4-$5 million appropriation, and in several years they hope the yearly appropriation will reach up to $10 million to support the research center, he said.