All Members Community

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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Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2024 8:26:00 AM
From: Anthony Stender
Subject: RE: Central Support for your Cores?

Dear Joe,

Although I cannot answer your questions, this is a very timely question.  I am at Creighton University, which is an R2, but some similar conversations have been started here.  If there is enough interest or feedback from others, I think this would be a valuable town hall topic.

Anthony

Anthony S. Stender, Ph.D. 

Microscopy Core Manager

Creighton University

Speaking from the admin side at UNC Chapel HIll--kind of, and it's improving. 

For ~10 years we have had an office in the School of Medicine and what we term a "Core Facility Advocacy Committee" with a budget that is a funding source for core facilities for method development, equipment, etc. needs. This office is fairly minimally staffed (there are two of us, and I am the only full time position) but also provides assistance with undergoing rate reviews, helping new cores start and other cores close or merge, provide core director meetings, maintain a website, disseminate information, etc. We also run a couple of core specific programs including travel awards and staff recognition awards. We have historically provided assistance and funding as needed to cores outside the School of Medicine, but to a more limited extent. 

Our Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research has increased their interest in more central support of core facilities for all of the schools and this has resulted in a full time core person in the Office of Sponsored Programs and what will hopefully turn into a full time core person int the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research. So far this has come with minimal additional funds as everyone's budget tightens down, but even so these central core support personnel have been hugely instrumental in getting cross-school data on core impact in terms of spending and grants supported, developing campus-wide financial tracking tools for core facilities, and developing campus-wide strategic thinking about core facilities.

Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Kara

kara_clissold@med.unc.edu

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Kara Clissold
Associate Director
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2024 8:56:00 AM
From: Kara Clissold
Subject: RE: Central Support for your Cores?

Speaking from the admin side at UNC Chapel HIll--kind of, and it's improving. 

For ~10 years we have had an office in the School of Medicine and what we term a "Core Facility Advocacy Committee" with a budget that is a funding source for core facilities for method development, equipment, etc. needs. This office is fairly minimally staffed (there are two of us, and I am the only full time position) but also provides assistance with undergoing rate reviews, helping new cores start and other cores close or merge, provide core director meetings, maintain a website, disseminate information, etc. We also run a couple of core specific programs including travel awards and staff recognition awards. We have historically provided assistance and funding as needed to cores outside the School of Medicine, but to a more limited extent. 

Our Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research has increased their interest in more central support of core facilities for all of the schools and this has resulted in a full time core person in the Office of Sponsored Programs and what will hopefully turn into a full time core person int the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research. So far this has come with minimal additional funds as everyone's budget tightens down, but even so these central core support personnel have been hugely instrumental in getting cross-school data on core impact in terms of spending and grants supported, developing campus-wide financial tracking tools for core facilities, and developing campus-wide strategic thinking about core facilities.

Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Kara

kara_clissold@med.unc.edu

------------------------------
Kara Clissold
Associate Director
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 3/22/2024 3:47:00 PM
From: Joe Dragavon
Subject: RE: Central Support for your Cores?

Thanks, Kara!

 

I would like to know how you have been able to convince your institution to provide additional support while tightening their financial belts elsewhere, as we are currently going through this very exercise. Were there any additional metrics or key performance indicators that you shared, in addition to the ones you listed (spending and grants supported, tracking tools, strategic thinking)?

 

Regarding the strategic thinking, was this core facility-focused, or was it more towards how the cores can better support the institution? Understanding and executing the big picture thought process, and communicating this, is of great interest to me.

 

Also, there is a whole session on Cores and Metrics at ABRF 2024:

 

Session: Developing Metrics to Support Shared Resources

Date: Monday, February 22

Time: 4:30 – 5:45pm

Organizer: Andy Ott, Northwestern

Location: TBA

 

Best,

 

Joe

 

----

Joe Dragavon
 
Director
BioFrontiers Advanced Light Microscopy Core 
JSCBB C315
University of Colorado Boulder
 

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Hi Joe, 

What a great question. This topic will be covered in part, in our panel discussion "What will a Shared Resource Core laboratory look like in 10 years?" Monday 4/21, 3pm-4:15pm. Bring question Jay Fox will have lots of answers. 

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Todd Smith
Director
Digital World Biology
Seattle WA
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Hi Joe,

I am happy to hear that there are other organizations going through this transition. I am the interim Core research strategy Director at UNC. I wonder if you or anyone who has responded below would be interested in getting together at ABRF to have a chat about what we are all doing or planning to do at our organizations. 

To your point we definitely don't want to reinvent the wheel but it would also be nice to talk about how different organizations are setup to take back to our organizations as strategic plans going forward.

Meghan

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Meghan Kraft
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2024 12:22:00 PM
From: Meghan Kraft
Subject: RE: Central Support for your Cores?

Hi Joe,

I am happy to hear that there are other organizations going through this transition. I am the interim Core research strategy Director at UNC. I wonder if you or anyone who has responded below would be interested in getting together at ABRF to have a chat about what we are all doing or planning to do at our organizations. 

To your point we definitely don't want to reinvent the wheel but it would also be nice to talk about how different organizations are setup to take back to our organizations as strategic plans going forward.

Meghan

------------------------------
Meghan Kraft
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2024 12:51:00 PM
From: Timothy Bushnell
Subject: RE: Central Support for your Cores?

Joe,

 

Here at URMC, we've gone from no support, to disorganized support to our current support for some facilities (Major facilities) so happy to discuss our journey from disjointed support to a department.

 

Tim

 

 

Timothy Bushnell, PhD, MBA

Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Director, Center for Advanced Research Technologies
Scientific Director, Flow Cytometry Resource

CART / Center for Advanced Research Technologies

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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
------------------------------

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.

Best

-Abhinav Jain, Ph.D

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Abhinav Jain
Associate Professor, Co-Director of the EpiGenomics Profiling Core (EpiCore), MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston TX
------------------------------

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.

------------------------------
Natasha Nikolaidis
Associate Director of Operations
Purdue University
West Lafayette IN
------------------------------

Hi Joe,

We do have a centralized support program at OHSU. I'm happy to share information about it with you any time.

Andy

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Andy Chitty
Director, University Shared Resources
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland OR
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