• Construction Brief

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 our 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 have helped 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.

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 here 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.

We foresee the construction of a three-story building (approximately 75,000 gross square feet), which 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.

Our 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.