Maximize your research assets: Master planning strategies to stay competitive without new construction

Research institutions face mounting pressure to attract leading scientists and students while managing constrained budgets and aging facilities. This presentation demonstrates how strategic master planning transforms legacy laboratory buildings into competitive research environments that appeal to today's talent and deliver key capabilities. Presenters reveal assessment methodologies that identify infrastructure capacity, spatial inefficiencies, and architectural opportunities within existing assets. They share benchmarking metrics that quantify underutilized square footage and align facility capabilities with recruitment priorities. Through data-driven case studies, they illustrate renovation feasibility approaches that extend building lifecycles while delivering flexible, modern research spaces. They outline practical frameworks for optimizing current resources, mitigating capital risk, and positioning institutions competitively in the talent marketplace—all before considering costly new construction.