The University of Minnesota will use its third $10 million gift of the past year for its planned genetics research facility, the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press reports.

The donation from Cargill Inc. will help pay for the university's 64,000-square-feet Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute on its St. Paul campus. The $20 million center will conduct research on microbes, tiny living organisms, and DNA. The Cargill gift must be matched with state dollars.

During the past year, the university received $10 million each from former Gophers football player Richard McNamara and the second was from the late entrepreneur Curt Carlson.

Cargill did not specify how its $10 million gift should be used. The Minneapolis-based agribusiness company will have access to research from the new institute, the Pioneer Press reports. The university plans to spend about $157 million in genetics research in the coming years.

Cargill CEO Warren Staley told the newspaper his company's investment would be better used at the university than through the company's own research efforts.

While the company donates about $17 million a year to civic and charitable causes, this is the largest single donation in Cargill's history.

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