This is indeed a great discussion topic. Here at MD Anderson Cancer Center, they recently setup a Core Facility Oversight Board (CFOB), which has memberships of faculty and administration partners and operated under Chief Scientific Officer. The responsibilities of the board is to decide on the institutional support, surveys and success of the cores. Our core was recently approved for funding through the institution based on our presentation to the board, our business plan and recommendations of the board members. Happy to describe more in detail re: the process that we recently went through to secure some institutional support for our core. Looking forward to the forum to continue discussions on this very important topic.
Original Message:
Sent: 03-20-2024 09:28
From: Natasha Nikolaidis
Subject: Central Support for your Cores?
We are a hybrid model, with some cores managed locally, and some managed centrally through the Office of Research. We are slowly moving toward a more centralized model, although I think we will always have some cores managed at the department or college level. Our centrally managed cores have administrative support for billing, grant submissions, contracts, compliance, data management, and metrics. The Office of Research runs an internal equipment program, and provides operating support to the centrally managed cores. So far bringing in additional cores to the centralized system has been more of a grass-roots effort, but we are hoping to institute a more formal system. We are learning that the administrative support is highly valued by the core directors, and from the administrative side, there are many advantages to having at least some coordinated oversight.
Jeff, I'm looking forward to the panel at the meeting this year! It's definitely been a major topic of discussion at our institution.
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Natasha Nikolaidis
Associate Director of Operations
Purdue University
West Lafayette IN
Original Message:
Sent: 03-18-2024 10:58
From: Joe Dragavon
Subject: Central Support for your Cores?
Good morning ABRF!
CU Boulder is exploring ways to better support our Core Facilities and, while we are confident there does not exist a universal solution, we would like to avoid reinventing the wheel with this effort. To this end, I have been tasked by our Vice Chancellor for Research to see if there are examples of similar institutions that have centralized, dedicated support for Cores and I am hoping you will be able to help me by sharing what you do at your institution (if anything) or if you are in the process of exploring options.
Briefly, CU Boulder is an R1 university that is not directly affiliated with a medical school/hospital. Organizationally, the management and fiscal responsibility of all of our Cores reside fully within their department. Currently we do not have an active, organized central support structure to support the Cores.
We are now looking at complementing the current organizational and financial structure by developing an institutional mechanism to annually provide funds and other supportive resources to our Cores. What this will look like and how much money are to be determined. But, to prepare ourselves, I am hoping a couple of you would be willing to share what your institutions do. More specifically, I am hoping to learn the following:
· Does your institution provide direct support to some or all of your Cores?
· How did this process get started and how much initial funding was involved?
· Do you have any major lessons you would like to share or pitfalls we should avoid?
Please let me know if you would be willing to speak with me about your institution. Additionally, let me know if you think this would make a good ABRF town hall/discussion session!
Sincerely,
Joe
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Joe Dragavon
Director, Advanced Light Microscopy Core
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder CO
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