Hi
At U. Michigan, we are a very decentralized institution. With over 100 cores, each core is administratively under the unit it is in. (Unit refers to institute or college/school..e.g, Medical School, College of Engineering, etc). There was no centralized support for cores. Around 3 years ago, the VP of Research wanted to centralize aspects of cores under the OVPR. I stepped into newly forged role as Director of the Research Cores Office to provide centralized support. Our mission is just that, to provide support to cores. This include helping navigate recharge rates, establishing best practices, building community for core staff, etc. At this point, it is myself and a Program Manager. At this point, we have no actual "authority" to make cores do things (as they fall under their units), but rather will likely offer more support to those that opt to follow our suggestion (lead with carrots instead of sticks).
Happy to discuss further.
Evan
------------------------------
Evan Keller
Director of Research Cores
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 08-04-2024 14:41
From: Susanna Perkins
Subject: Centralized core admin org structures
Hi Natasha -
At UMASS Chan Medical School, we have 1 centralized office that supports approximately 45 Core Facilities. The central office consists of a Director (me) and 4 Operations Accountants. We do all the financial support (quotes, invoicing, reporting, etc - revenues of $28M/yearly) along with purchase orders, service contracts, facility work and marketing outreach. We do not handle HR related work (opening reqs, etc) as their are 150+ people in our facilities. Those responsibilities belong to each Core's home department as the Core people report into those respective areas.
We historically reported into the VP for Research, but the Institution recently reorged and we are now reporting into Administration and Finance.
I'd welcome being part of a discussion group on this topic! Reach out if you'd like more info!
Susanna
------------------------------
Susanna Perkins
Director, Research Cores & Operations
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMASS)
Worcester MA
Original Message:
Sent: 07-24-2024 17:18
From: Natasha Nikolaidis
Subject: Centralized core admin org structures
For those of you that have centralized administration of core facilities, what does your org structure look like? How many people are on your team, and in what roles, broadly speaking? How many folks do you have working directly with you, and what duties are handled by other areas in other reporting lines? We're doing some reorganization, and I'm thinking through what a core management team structure might look like for us. Thanks!
------------------------------
Natasha Nikolaidis
Associate Director of Operations
Purdue University
West Lafayette IN
------------------------------