Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / AU Project - TPR's In Focus - July 28, 2026

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AU Project - TPR's In Focus - July 28, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park on
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  the main campus of Troy University, featuring the International
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  Arts Center, the Fred Nall Hollis Museum,
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  and the Hua Bao Zhu Gallery. More information
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  at troy.edu/artspark.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is
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  In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Some 45
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  rural counties in Alabama are experiencing expected to
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  benefit from a grant-funded project with
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  Auburn University. It will convert underutilized
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  farmland into bio-based products for the U.S.
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  economy. Dr. Steve Taylor,
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  Senior Vice President of Research and Economic Development,
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  joins us with news about the Bridges Project
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  at Auburn University. Dr.
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  Steve Taylor,
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  Welcome to Troy Public Radio. Hi Carolyn, it's really great
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  to talk to you today. I'm always happy to get a chance to talk about
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  our research programs at Auburn. Well, you actually just returned from
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  the world's largest air show in London.
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  How was it? You were a representative of the state of Alabama.
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  That's right, it was a really great event for us. We were
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  part of a larger Alabama delegation led by the Department of Commerce
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  that was there to help interface with the global aerospace
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  and defense industry and ultimately to find ways to partner with
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  companies around the world to attract them to help grow our manufacturing
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  economy here in the state. You have news to share with
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  the listeners today. It concerns a Bridges
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  Engine project. So the National Science Foundation recently
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  announced an award to a team of which Auburn
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  is a member, a team that's led by HudsonAlpha Biotechnology Institute,
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  Auburn University, the University of Tennessee, Volkswagen, and a company
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  called Agrotech. That award is for up to a
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  10-year project with funding up to $160 million to
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  help advance a new bioeconomy that would cover
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  the states of Tennessee and Alabama and develop a new biomanufacturing sector
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  in both of our states. You told me off the air that this is all
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  about reshoring manufacturing. What does that
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  term mean? To me, the term reshoring would mean bringing
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  back manufacturing enterprises that we have
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  allowed to move overseas over the last last 20 or 30 years,
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  but it also means developing new innovative manufacturing
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  industries that didn't exist before right here in our own state
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  that again can help strengthen our local economies. And how would you
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  define the Bridges Project? So it's a team effort again of
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  multiple partners. It's really looking to create a
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  resilient rural economy that benefits farmers, manufacturers,
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  workers, and consumers It's leveraging natural resources
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  and crops that we can grow here in Alabama and Tennessee,
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  agricultural crops in particular. Take those crops and process
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  them into new products, develop new manufacturing
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  industries that will make those products, provide jobs for the
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  local communities, and then sustainable products that will go into
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  the marketplace. So you're talking about strengthening Alabama's
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  rural economy. What will these farmers be growing?
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  The 2 primary crops that this project focuses on are herbaceous
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  crops. They're grass crops, switchgrass and miscanthus, known as
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  biomass crops today. They can grow very tall.
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  They're grasses that require relatively few inputs and
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  relatively lower maintenance than our traditional agricultural row crops,
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  but they produce a lot of biomass that can be processed into other
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  consumer products. Can you give us examples? I mentioned that our
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  team included Volkswagen. They're looking for substitutes for petroleum-based
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  plastics that would create interior door panels,
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  mirrors, and mirror housings on your car, the fabric on
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  their seats, the foam cushions, the dashboard, the other
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  insulation and soundproofing in your car. And then in construction
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  materials, things like roofing shingles, attic and wall insulation,
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  and even asphalt for the pavement that we drive on. And then
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  the third area would be packaging materials, that takeout container
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  that you bring supper home tonight from a restaurant. They could be grocery packaging,
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  they could be other electronics or pharmaceutical packaging.
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  Can you describe the process to develop these? Our researchers
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  are developing the techniques and the processes to take
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  those grasses and convert them into these biomaterials,
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  but then the actual activity of helping to train
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  farmers, to get them to grow these crops, that will be done through our
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  Alabama Cooperative Extension System, as well as our counterparts in Tennessee.
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  So they would work with farmers to help them as they begin to grow
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  these new crops. It sounds like, Dr. Taylor, you're talking about new
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  job opportunities in our rural communities,
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  new manufacturing in rural Alabama.
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  Coming up on August 18th, there will be a grand
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  opening of a laboratory in Huntsville.
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  What is this? Auburn has a campus in Huntsville, and we just
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  recently finished a new 50,000-square-foot laboratory building that's
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  part of our Applied Research Institute. Instead of the fundamental laboratory
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  research that often takes place here on our main campus, that Applied Research
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  Institute is really on the other end where they're taking technology that's
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  been developed in the laboratory and then applying it to solve real problems in the
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  defense, aerospace, and even biotechnology sectors.
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  Our new building in Huntsville, on the 18th, we're opening it. The anchor
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  project in there is a program we're doing radiation hardening
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  testing of electronics that will fly in space. There's a
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  significant need in this country to develop and validate electronic
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  hardware so that it will survive the high radiation environment in space.
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  And so we've developed an entire testing program to be able to,
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  to test it with the high-energy protons to make sure that
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  those electronics will survive in space. When you look at Alabama and
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  the map, What areas do you foresee the Bridges
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  Project being tailor-made for?
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  About 2/3 of Alabama is covered with trees, and so there are
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  existing industries that use forest products to make pulp
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  and paper products and solid wood construction products, sawn lumber,
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  other composite products. But then the other part of the state, particularly North Alabama
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  and down the eastern side of Alabama into the Wiregrass region,
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  significant amount of traditional farmland. I think
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  this project is really focused on that North Alabama wiregrass region
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  to take farmland that may be in pasture now that could
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  be converted to grow these very high-productivity biomass
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  crops like switchgrass and miscanthus. Anywhere where today we might be
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  growing forage crops or hay crops,
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  or frankly, even if a farmer had been growing traditional row crops
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  and they wanted to start growing these biomass crops, Any of those areas in Alabama
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  would certainly be suited well for this. Since this is a multi-phase
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  project, it sounds like people who are interested can
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  simply monitor it. I think, again, as the
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  project gets underway, the researchers and the extension professionals,
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  as they work through it, really to connect with our Alabama
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  Cooperative Extension System, and those in Tennessee would connect with our counterpart
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  extension system in Tennessee. And just stay connected to them. And as the
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  project develops, there will be opportunities to work with those extension professionals as
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  they guide farmers through the decision-making process
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  on whether it's appropriate for them, and then how would they begin that production
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  system. Can you look ahead and foresee the impact
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  on the state of Alabama? Sure. The project as it's laid
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  out, they have some pretty ambitious goals, but they would see eventually
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  establishing about 50,000 acres of switchgrass and miscanthus
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  across both Tennessee and Alabama, and they think that can generate
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  annually about $30 million in new direct farm
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  revenue. As the manufacturing sector develops
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  along with that, they think that ultimately that can employ
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  over 4,000 people across these 2 states in supply
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  chain manufacturing jobs with an annual impact of close to $300
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  million from those manufacturing sector and the production sector. This is
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  a far-reaching, innovative project. So how
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  can your listeners find out more? I would just go to auburn.edu and
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  look for BRIDGES, and our websites will have information
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  on it. This is really all central to our land-grant mission.
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  Auburn is a land-grant institution. This is really central to what we
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  do every day. We provide new knowledge, we develop
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  solutions for problems that help strengthen our economy, improve quality
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  of life, and strengthen our national security. So this project is just
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  right in line with all of those primary goals as a land-grant institution.
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  Well, Dr. Taylor, it's been a pleasure finding out about this exciting
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  new project. Well, thank you for being our guest today. Thank you.
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  It was really a pleasure talking with you. That was Dr. Steve Taylor,
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  Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Auburn
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  University. Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is
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  a podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get
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  in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. And this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.