Research Core Facilities are important to the research mission for effective and efficient use of specialized skills, expensive and/or complicated equipment, and standardized services. By centralizing the equipment and expertise of faculty and technicians in a common facility, the services can provide maximum benefit and leverage across the institution as support for a multitude of investigators.
Scientific Cores:
An interdepartmental organizational unit which develops, aggregates, manages and provides specialized resources, services, and tools to researchers across the institution. These tend to be capital and human resource intensive research-enabling platforms which often are financially viable when developed as institutional resources and managed centrally.
Shared Equipment:
Pieces of research equipment that are used by a smaller, focused group of faculty (not typically available for broad application across the institution). Equipment is managed, operated, and supported by faculty or within departmental units; primarily used by an identified faculty group.
Goals
Primary goals for establishing cores include:
- Maximizing unique expertise in specific areas of science and analysis to support multiple faculty and grants
- Leveraging expensive equipment purchases to be used by as many faculty as possible
- Supporting larger grant parameters that require the use and support of cores (within grants such as the NCI CCSG grant and several PPGs)
- Cost effectiveness for the institution and department by spreading the cost of shared operations appropriately across the user base
- Standardizing operational and analytical protocols for consistent application of science and use of equipment
By sharing resources, researchers at Wake Forest gain access to equipment and laboratories they might not be able to afford individually. In addition, they offer a level of expertise unique to each specialty.