Auburn University, Auburn, Ala., built a 30-acre, multi-facility complex that encompasses an administration and classroom building, and is scheduled to open April 10.

Situated at Auburn University’s new Charles C. Miller Poultry Research and Education Center, what is dubbed to the nation’s largest innovation hub in the food industry, this new complex offers a comprehensive lab environment for university students and research faculty as well as industry professionals across the nation.

Research at the Miller Center will target key issues of efficiency and sustainability in poultry production, avian health and well-being and food safety and quality.

“The poultry industry is the largest and fastest-growing food industry in the country,” says Paul Patterson, dean of Auburn’s College of Agriculture. “As this industry grows, we need solid, reliable research and training to ensure the level of quality, safety and efficiency that consumers and businesses deserve. We are proud to offer the nation’s leading poultry scientists and professionals the very best in research and teaching facilities at the Miller Center.”

The Miller Center broke ground in 2016 with the construction of two nutrition and poultry management research facilities as well as an equipment testing and demonstration facility, which houses the National Poultry Technology Center. The site of the Miller Center was already home to a feed mill and animal and poultry nutrition center that was built in 2012.

Auburn University is also breaking ground on the Miller Center’s next facility, a state-of-the-art processing plant that will serve as a stage for developing new, improved methods of controlling foodborne pathogens and advancing the use of data-driven poultry processing technology.