Jane:

Good question -

I think there are  alot of issues (both financial and non-financial) tied up in
how these core research facilities operate.
Steve raised on of them when he mentioned whether or not these will be made
available to external users.  Let me suggest several other:

1 - Time management - who determines who has access to these machines?  Does
everyone in the department (or school or university or system..) have the right
to access a facility that was purchased with state and/or federal funds? I think
that this issue is becoming more prevalent especially as there is more
translational research today than ever and there is a larger pool of retired but
"active" faculty.

2 - Financial - are they going to operate as service centers?  As you know, this
raises a whole host of issues.  Who determines the rate structure ?  Will
departments be given a certain amount of credit so they can use the machines
without paying out of their operating budgets?

3 - Organizational - Who will these units report to?  the VPR?? the dept
chairs?? the deans??

I think one really good place to look for guidance is the operating procedures
for NIH and NSF shared instrumentation or core facilities.  These centers (or
large equipment) must have strong policies and procedures that address these
types of questions.  Perhaps someone who has one of these at their institution
could provide you a copy of their P&P.

Tony Boccanfuso

"Youngers, Jane" <xxxxxx@UTHSCSA.EDU> on 02/24/2000 04:28:52 PM

Please respond to Research Administration Discussion List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
To:   xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
cc:
Subject:  Core Facilities

Here's a new topic (I think) for the list.  We are looking at how we might
better manage our existing core research facilities and develop guidelines
for establishing new ones.  By core research facility, I mean a facility
that provides support to many researchers on your campus.  The classic core
research facility is the animal facility.  But I am not really interested in
how you finance and manage that.  What I am interested in is how you
identify, finance, and manage your other core facilities such as protein
structure cores or DNA sequencing cores or microscopy cores.  Do you have
definitions of what consistututes a core facility; how are they typically
managed. how are they typically financed.  Any other guidelines or
policies/procedures you might have.  Just a website address would even help.

Thanks.

Jane
Jane A. Youngers
Director, Grants Management
Mail Code 7828
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio TX  78229-3900
phone 210.567.2333
fax 210.567.2344
email xxxxxx@uthscsa.edu

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