DAYTON, Ohio — Emerson Climate Technologies announced it is moving forward with plans to develop a new $35 million innovation center on the University of Dayton campus in Dayton, Ohio, to advance research and education for the global HVACR industry.

The company said the Emerson Innovation Center, the result of a partnership between Emerson Climate Technologies and the University of Dayton, will be a “one-of-a-kind research and training hub” where Emerson experts, HVACR industry leaders, and university faculty and students can come together to focus on the technology and best practices to help drive and impact the future of HVACR. Emerson said the center will foster a collaborative approach to research to create new technologies that address HVACR industry challenges, such as increasing energy efficiency, promoting sustainability, and improving system connectivity.

The center’s activities will focus on five HVACR industry markets: residential air conditioning, commercial air conditioning, food retail, food service, and network/data centers. The facility will feature prototype installations of real-world applications, such as the HVAC system for a house and a refrigeration system for a supermarket, to give university researchers, Emerson product developers, industry partners, customers, and students an opportunity to experiment with concepts, technologies, and scenarios before trying them in actual customer installations.

“This facility fills a real and critical need for the HVACR industry today,” said Ed Purvis, executive vice president, Emerson Climate Technologies. “Nowhere else will you find a similar facility where academic researchers and industry participants can come together under one roof to dialogue, develop, and test technology solutions through various real-world applications. The goal is to create the world’s premier HVACR research and development facility where creativity and open-mindedness is encouraged. Here, new and game-changing concepts in technologies and services will be conceived and tested to create real and beneficial change in our industry and world.”

The Emerson Innovation Center will be located just 40 miles from the company’s headquarters in Sidney, Ohio, and will facilitate collaboration between Emerson and the University of Dayton’s School of Engineering.

“By choosing the University of Dayton campus for its new Innovation Center, Emerson Climate Technologies has invested not only in its own future, but in ours,” said Daniel J. Curran, president of the University of Dayton. “The partnership will help make our university a center for research and development in a highly important global industry. And the Emerson Innovation Center also will serve as a potential employer for many of our graduates. We believe this partnership will pay dividends for years to come.”

Construction of the new facility is tentatively scheduled to begin in October 2014 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

For more information, visit www.emersonclimate.com.

Publication date: 7/28/2014