Bayer CropScience has opened a new Seed Innovation Center on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock.

The 100,000-square-foot center will host the company’s global cotton business, growth rooms for plant cells, molecular biology laboratories and a greenhouse to support research in cotton, soybeans and wheat. The greenhouse can hold 30,000 midsize cotton plants and 7,500 full size soybean plants.

A division of German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, cotton seed producer Bayer CropScience has invested $1 billion in crop science research and development in recent years. Ten percent of its gross sales goes back into research. The new center represents the ongoing collaboration between Bayer and Texas Tech University, which began 15 years ago.

Source: Seshadri Ramkumar, Texas Tech University