Equipment Sharing
Equipment sharing involves the use of any research instrumentation, tools, services, specialized reagents or other materials by multiple research groups.
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. |
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." |