The grant, and $10.15 million in funding from other sources, will enable the $17.6 million building effort.

Named the Bott Building for Nursing Education and Research, the new facility will be adjacent to the Life Sciences Building on the southside of campus.

“We are so thrilled,” College of Nursing Dean Mary Mundt said. “It’s very, very exciting.”
Construction is slated to begin in late summer or early fall, she said.

The college’s Nursing Research Center and faculty potentially could be moved into the new building by fall 2011 or spring 2012, Mundt said.

A spokesperson from the National Institutes of Health was not available for comment Friday.
Barbara Given, associate dean for research for the College of Nursing, said in an e-mail the new facility will expand space for faculty research. The expansion will allow the college to advance nursing research into chronic illness and health promotion, she said.

“With the nursing science that evolves from that work, we can translate the findings so that citizens in Michigan — that is patients and their families — can have improved ability to respond to their health problems and generally have improved health status and a better quality of life,” Given said in the e-mail.

The consolidated location will allow for researchers, their teams and the students who work with them to function with more efficiency, collaboration and mentorship, she said. It will foster sharing between researchers and students, Given said.

The expansion of the research facilities is important because research is so crucial to nursing and MSU’s curriculum, nursing junior Carmel Santos said.

“You can’t really care for anybody without knowing the research behind it,” Santos said. “(Research) is what we need the most in nursing.”

The new facility also will centralize students in one location, Mundt said.

While the second and third floors of the building will be devoted to research, it also will feature spaces for students to gather and study, creating a sense of community within the college.

“We are in three different buildings on campus now: Life Sciences, West Fee Hall and Owen Hall,” Mundt said. “This building addition will allow us to bring everyone back to one location, and that’s a very good thing.”