During the summer of 2024, the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky broke ground on a brand-new research facility located on the southern part of campus.
Located near Kroger Field, the new agriculture research facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories for research and teaching, and also include rooftop greenhouses and a versatile teaching auditorium.
The $285 million project will significantly enhance the college’s equine and food animal research programs while also accommodating classes dedicated to studying plants and soil sciences.
This project also seeks to unify the otherwise spread-out college, as the new facility will house the departments of animal and food sciences, entomology, horticulture and plant and soil sciences.
Additionally, the new facility will act as the main research hub for the college. The new labs will allow researchers to conduct a wide variety of experiments and help students get involved in some hands-on learning activities.
The college’s associate dean of research, James Matthews, said he looks forward to recruiting new students and staff to the college, as people will be eager to work in these new labs for years to come.
“We will be able to increase our recruitment of graduate students and new faculty because our facilities that they’re replacing are sixty years old labs. We’ll now be able to have researchers who can come into new labs and be willing to work there for thirty years,” Matthews said.
Not only will the labs be enticing for future students and staff, but the facility will be able to easily conduct quality research that will impact the Commonwealth, which was more of a challenge in the old labs.
“We go from facilities that are from the 1970s to 2025 and so the facilities, the physical environments will be better matched to new technologies that we have for conducting our science,” Matthews said.
The benefits of the research facility will also fall to the students who will be studying in the brand-new classrooms and auditorium.
Student Ella Shields said she is excited about the potential of the new building, and she thinks cannabis would be a great topic to study in the new labs.
“Maybe herbicide or pesticide research, I’d really be interested to see some cannabis research being done here,” Shields said.
The building is set to be completed by November 2026.
