The purpose of these funds is to pay lease payments on a new research and training facility that will be constructed on auburn university campus (AU fisheries north station, auburn lakes road)

Auburn University received an $8.0 million Project Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Region 4, under the Fish and Aquatic Conservation – Aquatic Invasive Species program (CFDA 15.608), effective September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2030. The award funds lease payments for a new research and training facility, the AU Fisheries North Station, to be constructed on Auburn University's campus in Auburn, Alabama. The facility will be constructed and owned by the City of Auburn Industrial Development Board and leased to Auburn University for operation.

The new facility will provide critical analytical and laboratory space to support Auburn University's College of Agriculture and School of Fisheries, strengthening two SEAFWA (Southeastern Association of Fisheries and Wildlife Agencies)-chartered cooperative programs: the Auburn University Southeastern Cooperative Fish Parasite and Disease Laboratory and the Auburn University Southeastern Cooperative Fish Genetics Project. The facility will also enable USFWS to co-locate its Conservation Genetics Laboratory and jointly develop an environmental DNA (eDNA) core laboratory facility, creating a formal partnership that combines Auburn University's established fisheries research infrastructure and expertise in fish health and genetics with USFWS's aquatic natural resource management capabilities and conservation mission.

The new building is a hand-in-hand partnership with a federal entity (the US fish and wildlife service, USFWS) that has immense resources and expertise in aquatic natural resource management, complementing the personnel and infrastructure for fisheries research (especially in fish health and genetics) that has developed over the years at AU-sfaas. There is immense benefit to AU-sfaas and the USFWS partnering and sharing resources into the future. The new building is the initiation of that vision. The new facility will be constructed and owned by the city of auburn industrial development board. The building will be leased to and operated by auburn university. The building will be constructed on land that is already owned by auburn university that will be leased to the city of auburn industrial development board for the construction. The new building provides much needed analytical space for the college of agriculture (which currently has inadequate space to support this project), provides the school of fisheries with much needed infrastructure to support and strengthen the auburn university southeastern cooperative fish parasite and disease laboratory and the auburn university southeastern cooperative fish genetics project, both of which are chartered by (and via formal MOU with) the member states of the southeastern association of fisheries and wildlife agencies (seafwa), and provides the USFWS with the analytical space needed to strengthen and expand its core mission areas. This project is of benefit to the USFWS and to AU because the USFWS will CO-locate their conservation genetics lab within the building and the USFWS will continue to share in the CO-development of an edna core laboratory facility there. This ensures that AU and the USFWS move forward in partnership to benefit the region and the nation.