Visit our facilities to learn more about—and get involved in—the exciting activities happening here at SFA!

Centers at SFA

Center for Applied Research and Rural Innovation

The Center for Applied Research and Rural Innovation (CARRI) brings faculty and students together with business, industry, education, and community partners in dynamic, interactive environments. Through these interactions, students will learn how to use their skills to work in teams with other students from multiple disciplines in order to solve complex real-world problems for rural and smaller communities.

Center for Business and Economic Research

The Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) provides expert economic research, analysis and consulting services to private and public clients in the East Texas region and beyond.

Center for Research Advancing Identities and Student Experiences

The RAISE Center explores and profiles the identity experiences comprising the contemporary college student through research and critical praxis. Programming highlights student populations, trends and issues in regard to how they are supported by our institutions through graduation.

Center for Rural Social Work Research and Development

The Center for Rural Social Work Research and Development (RSW) supports activities that foster the development of community-based social services and enhance the leadership capabilities of rural service providers.

Center for Student Research and Creative Discovery

The Center for Student Research and Creative Discovery (CSRCD) promotes, supports, and showcases the research, discovery, and creative efforts of undergraduate students at Stephen F. Austin State University. This mission is accomplished through an infrastructure designed to facilitate:

  • connections between students, faculty, opportunities, and resources;
  • faculty mentorship;
  • student success in their scholarly endeavors; and
  • the dissemination of completed student projects.

Ultimately, the Center provides participation incentives for faculty and students, thus enabling these transformative experiences and energizing faculty in student’s research endeavors.   

Center for Sustainable Community Development

The CSCD engages students with experiential, field-based learning, assists communities and institutions with achieving their sustainable development goals (domestically and internationally) and publishes related research.

Greg Arnold Center for Entrepreneurship

The Greg Arnold Center for Entrepreneurship, or ACE, is designed to inspire, nurture and attract entrepreneurship across campus and in the community. It enables new collaboration among a variety of academic disciplines as well as new avenues for partnership with businesses and industry throughout the state.

Heritage Research Center

The Heritage Research Center (HRC) is a community of scholars and researchers from SFA and across east Texas who investigate and document the natural and cultural heritage of the region. Together, they have expanded the capacity of SFA to conduct research in several vital fields, including historic preservation, archaeology, geography, heritage tourism, resource interpretation, and community development. Initial start-up support provided by the Research Development Fund

Poultry Research Center

The Poultry Research Center allows the SFA poultry program to conduct poultry industry driven research investigating feed additives, poultry health products, nutrition and environmental stewardship.

SFA Gardens

SFA Gardens is a 62-acre horticultural resource for the SFA community and East Texas region, which includes the SFA Mast Arboretum, the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden, and the Pineywoods Native Plant Center. The mission of SFA Gardens is to promote the conservation, selection and use of the native plants of Texas, promote plant diversity in the landscape, serve as a living laboratory for SFA students and faculty and the nursery and landscape industry, and provide an aesthetic and educational environment for students, visitors and local citizens.

STEM Research and Learning Center

SFA has made a significant commitment to expanding research opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our $46.4 million STEM Research and Learning Center supports collaborative research within the STEM disciplines — and among researchers in STEM and non-STEM fields. The four-story STEM Research and Learning Center building bolsters SFA’s efforts to support STEM education at the K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. The center conducts cutting edge research on activities designed to recruit students interested in STEM and prepare them for STEM careers.

Clinics and Service Laboratories at SFA

American Sign Language Media Development Laboratory

The American Sign Language Media Development Laboratory (ASLM) is dedicated to developing interactive media to improve the educational opportunities for all students with auditory disabilities.

Cole Audiology Laboratory

The Cole Audiology Laboratory provides diagnostic hearing evaluations for patients of all ages. In addition, the clinic can also provide further audiological services include digital hearing aid and assistive listening device fitting.

Early Childhood Laboratory

The Early Childhood Laboratory (ECHL) is a facility maintained for the education of SFA students preparing to work with young children and their families. The ECHL is programmatically dedicated to meeting the needs of SFA students in various early childhood education and human sciences child development courses.

Human Neuroscience Laboratory

The Human Neuroscience Laboratory (HNL) is a state-of-the-art research, teaching and service facility dedicated to studying the ways that the human brain supports human behavior. The goal is to create and apply brain-behavior knowledge that will illuminate individual differences in sensation and perception, learning skills, copying strategies as well as physical and mental capabilities of individuals using the principles of neuroscience.

Rehabilitation Services Career Planning Laboratory

Founded in 2002, the Rehabilitation Services Career Planning Laboratory is recognized by the State of Texas as a Community Rehabilitation Program. In support of the mission of both the Perkins College of Education and the Department of Human Services, the objective of this laboratory is to prepare competent, successful, caring, and enthusiastic professionals by active involvement in training, research, and service.

School Psychology Assessment Center

The School Psychology Assessment Center (SPAC) is a clinical and research center whose mission is to provide affordable, quality mental health assessment/care to the campus, community, and area residents. SPAC provides psychological assessment services for the measurement of disorders that affect psychological, emotional, academic, and occupational functioning.

Stanley Center for Speech and Language Disorders

The Stanley Center for Speech and Language Disorders is dedicated to providing the highest quality of clinical care in the areas of speech and language therapy for residents in the East Texas area while engaging students in 'hands-on' training in the clinical setting under direct faculty supervision.

Specialized Laboratories at SFA

Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory

Since 1985, Anthropology and Archaeology Laboratory has provided student training and teaching opportunities through field and laboratory work. Archaeological researchers work in Texas and adjacent regions. The lab also educates the general public about anthropology and archaeology, provides cultural resource management services and furnishes long-term care for collections that are “held in trust” for the people of Texas and the United States.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility

Dedicated to interdisciplinary research, the university's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility has recently acquired a Joel ECS 400MHz NMR Spectrometer. Initial start-up support provided by the Research Development Fund.