Equipment Sharing
Equipment sharing involves the use of any research instrumentation, tools, services, specialized reagents or other materials by multiple research groups.
Equipment sharing saves research funding by avoiding duplicative equipment/supply purchases and leads to efficiency in overhead costs by reducing the space and energy/water requirements to support equipment resources. Directors of shared equipment facilities provide expertise and training that saves researchers significant time.
Did you know that US Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) requires equipment sharing and avoiding duplicate purchases where possible (2 CFR 200.313 (c)(2) and 2 CFR 200.318 (d) & (f))? Shared equipment facilities demonstrate campus compliance with these regulations.
Did you know that US Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) requires equipment sharing and avoiding duplicate purchases where possible (2 CFR 200.313 (c)(2) and 2 CFR 200.318 (d) & (f))? Shared equipment facilities demonstrate campus compliance with these regulations.
TOPICS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PROPOSAL
1. Making use of existing research equipment and resources
2. Describe how equipment/resources purchased on the grant will become shared resources
3. Highlight available tools and support to find existing research resources and grow sharing
4. Describe how you and your research will grow a culture of equipment and resource sharing (in biosketches, training plans and broader impacts)
- Include descriptions of existing resources and core facilities to be utilized in your grant proposals to benefit efficiency and avoid the need to spend grant funding unnecessarily.
- Think about shared resources (laboratory equipment, research services, computer/software) that are not only available on your campus, but other campuses as well.
2. Describe how equipment/resources purchased on the grant will become shared resources
- Include information in your proposal on how equipment purchased with your grant funding will become shared resources for the greater campus or research community (for example by placing it in a core facility or listing it on a shared instrumentation website).
- Think about sharing beyond just the very expensive equipment resources. Sharing typically happens for the most expensive equipment because those items are cost-prohibitive to purchase. However, large untapped potential for sharing exists in the mid to lower cost categories of equipment where there is a greater tendency for researchers to purchase their own items.
3. Highlight available tools and support to find existing research resources and grow sharing
- Include links and descriptions of shared instrumentation websites and support personnel available on campus or regionally/nationally that will help your research gain access to needed resources while conducting the proposed research.
- Describe efforts underway that will enable your proposed research to access and grow sharing of resources to benefit efficiency and avoid the need to spend grant funding unnecessarily.
4. Describe how you and your research will grow a culture of equipment and resource sharing (in biosketches, training plans and broader impacts)
- Include the sharing culture that you bring as a researcher to your department, campus and the regional area and the training of future research scientists.
- Describe efforts that you lead or will lead such as incorporating equipment sharing into the hiring process of new research faculty and staff (interview questions, offer letter language, start-up package structure), and the on-boarding process for new graduate student and post-doctorates.
Benefits of Managed, Shared Equipment:
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1. Efficient purchasing: Shared equipment facilities help avoid duplicative equipment purchases and enable scientists to make better use of existing resources.
2. Space Utilization: Better space utilization through shared resources minimizes the need to grow in laboratory space. Lab space is very expensive space to build and maintain and typically energy intense because of ventilation needs. 3. Strategic use of start-up funding: Instead of start-up dollars leaving a research institution to purchase more equipment resources that are already present at an institution, those start-up funds can instead support existing shared equipment facilities and even expand the equipment capabilities of those facilities. 4. Time savings for researchers: Managers of shared equipment facilities save researcher time by helping them locate the equipment resources that they need and taking care of logistics that would pull them away from research (such as maintaining equipment and training new equipment users). 5. Access to expertise: Managers of shared equipment facilities provide expertise to help with experimentation and trouble shooting. Skills and knowledge are transferred far more efficiently to researchers. 6. Recruitment: Shared equipment can attract top scientists and enable them to get started faster by providing immediate access to a wide range of resources and expertise. It takes a long time for a newly hired researcher to set-up a lab. With access to the right shared resources, getting started faster also means being able to start writing grant proposals sooner. |
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7. Energy and resource efficiency: By not duplicating equipment resources unnecessarily and using lab space more efficiently, energy and resources are utilized more efficiently.
8. Expanding research capabilities and grant opportunities: Shared equipment facilities provide scientists with access to equipment resources that they would otherwise not have, thus opening the door to greater research capabilities and more grant opportunities.
9. External funds captured: Providing appropriate locations for external users (such as companies and collaborators) to access managed resources for a fee brings in outside dollars which furthers support of shared equipment resources and research at an institution.
10. Staying on the cutting edge of technology: The latest technology in research equipment can be more easily afforded when a pool of researchers are using a shared piece of equipment rather than many using each of their own. This also reduces the number of service contracts needed (and associated costs) since there are fewer pieces of equipment.
11. Academics: Opportunities for classes and students to access equipment for learning experiences is simpler when equipment is in a shared facility with a manager, rather than tucked away in an individual lab. The manager can provide trainings to individual students or to an entire laboratory class.
12. Compliance: Shared equipment facilities demonstrate campus compliance with Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) that require equipment sharing and avoiding duplicate purchases where possible (2 CFR 200.313 (c)(2) and 2 CFR 200.318 (d) & (f)). Managers of shared equipment facilities can also serve as key contacts/partners for research administrators to ensure accurate equipment tracking and compliance with other federal regulations.
13. Resiliency: Having critical resources co-located in shared spaces enables campus to better prepare for emergencies and better plan for building spaces that are a priority for back-up power infrastructure in case of an extended loss of electrical power.
14. Rigor and reproducibility: This has become an increasingly important topic to NIH after publications demonstrated that only about 50% or less of life science research could be reproduced resulting in $28 billion/year spent in the US on research that is irreproducible. While there is great pressure to complete research and publish among scientists working in faculty labs, the pressure on managers of core facilities is to provide outstanding science and service. Thus, at the 2019 Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities (ABRF) conference, some universities presented that they are looking to cores to help their universities meet the increased scrutiny and pressure from research sponsors for scientific rigor and reproducibility.
15. Safety: University research labs educate the next generation of scientists and thus can have frequent turnover of members. Managers of shared facilities often are in their positions for longer periods of time and are regularly available to provide support and oversight. As a result, they have the presence, experience, and expertise that enables them to provide consistent, quality training of users that contributes to a safe research environment.
16. Responsible use of taxpayer dollars and demonstrating responsible use of funding to research sponsors: For the many cost benefit reasons given above, equipment sharing is the right thing to do because it leads to optimized use of taxpayer and research sponsor dollars.
8. Expanding research capabilities and grant opportunities: Shared equipment facilities provide scientists with access to equipment resources that they would otherwise not have, thus opening the door to greater research capabilities and more grant opportunities.
9. External funds captured: Providing appropriate locations for external users (such as companies and collaborators) to access managed resources for a fee brings in outside dollars which furthers support of shared equipment resources and research at an institution.
10. Staying on the cutting edge of technology: The latest technology in research equipment can be more easily afforded when a pool of researchers are using a shared piece of equipment rather than many using each of their own. This also reduces the number of service contracts needed (and associated costs) since there are fewer pieces of equipment.
11. Academics: Opportunities for classes and students to access equipment for learning experiences is simpler when equipment is in a shared facility with a manager, rather than tucked away in an individual lab. The manager can provide trainings to individual students or to an entire laboratory class.
12. Compliance: Shared equipment facilities demonstrate campus compliance with Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) that require equipment sharing and avoiding duplicate purchases where possible (2 CFR 200.313 (c)(2) and 2 CFR 200.318 (d) & (f)). Managers of shared equipment facilities can also serve as key contacts/partners for research administrators to ensure accurate equipment tracking and compliance with other federal regulations.
13. Resiliency: Having critical resources co-located in shared spaces enables campus to better prepare for emergencies and better plan for building spaces that are a priority for back-up power infrastructure in case of an extended loss of electrical power.
14. Rigor and reproducibility: This has become an increasingly important topic to NIH after publications demonstrated that only about 50% or less of life science research could be reproduced resulting in $28 billion/year spent in the US on research that is irreproducible. While there is great pressure to complete research and publish among scientists working in faculty labs, the pressure on managers of core facilities is to provide outstanding science and service. Thus, at the 2019 Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities (ABRF) conference, some universities presented that they are looking to cores to help their universities meet the increased scrutiny and pressure from research sponsors for scientific rigor and reproducibility.
15. Safety: University research labs educate the next generation of scientists and thus can have frequent turnover of members. Managers of shared facilities often are in their positions for longer periods of time and are regularly available to provide support and oversight. As a result, they have the presence, experience, and expertise that enables them to provide consistent, quality training of users that contributes to a safe research environment.
16. Responsible use of taxpayer dollars and demonstrating responsible use of funding to research sponsors: For the many cost benefit reasons given above, equipment sharing is the right thing to do because it leads to optimized use of taxpayer and research sponsor dollars.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES1. FASEB Maximizing Shared Research Resources Report Provides Path Forward for Improvement 2. ABRF Core Marketplace 3. University of Colorado Boulder Shared Instrumentation Network 4. NIH and ABRF "Enhancing Efficiency of Research Core Facilities" Workshop 5. ABRF Group connecting shared equipment with Rigor and Reproducibility 6. NIH Shared Instrumentation Program 7. NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Awards |
Funding Body Expecting Sharing
UKRI Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council "strongly supports the recommendation that all new equipment purchased using public funding sources ... should be registered on the equipment.data.ac.uk national database to enable greater sharing." |
