HOUGHTON - A new building may soon go up on Michigan Technological University's waterfront. It will be an interdisciplinary research haven for the Upper Great Lakes region.

Pending final approval from Michigan Tech's Board of Control in May, groundbreaking for the Great Lakes Research Center will happen in June, with move-in to be completed by April 2011. A state capital outlay bill signed in September authorized Michigan Tech to spend $25 million to build the center, with the university paying for 25 percent or $6.25 million.

W. Charles Kerfoot, professor of biological sciences and member of a planning committee guiding the project, said the center will allow for researchers to cluster around specific topics.

"This is not a shifting of departments, so that's the challenge," he said. "It's interdisciplinary, where we have shared laboratories."

Topics to be studied include global climate change, invasive species, over-fishing, persistent toxic contaminants and habitat restoration. Research will focus on Lake Superior as well as inland lakes, Kerfoot said. The building's eight labs include an exotic species laboratory, a sediment laboratory and a mass spectrometry lab where large samples can be screened quickly for different compounds.

Tentative plans call for the building to feature a green roof (a roof that has plants growing on it), a boat house for the research vessels Agassiz and Polar, and an exhibition area where school children and community members can learn about the research being done in the building, Kerfoot said.

With the center, researchers hope they'll get larger projects and expand the university's aquatic research capabilities. Kerfoot said the center may also allow more students to join research endeavors during the summer.

"I think there a lot of students that would like to stay around here and get involved in the projects," he said.

Layla Aslani can be reached at laslani@mininggazette.com.