EDITORIAL
Sharing Core Facilities and Research Resources—An Investment in Accelerating
Scientific Discoveries
Michael Chang and Franziska B. Grieder
Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, Office of
the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Each year, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
invests substantial resources in core facilities that provide
access to advanced cutting-edge technologies, expert
consultation, and other services to scientific investigators.
The facilities offer a number of services, ranging from
systematic analysis and data processing, using specialized
instrumentation, to access and expert advice on experimen-
tal design and evaluation needs, such as biostatistics, patient
outreach, and clinical regulatory issues. The largest fraction
of support for cores comes from the institutes and centers of
the NIH, for example, through the National Cancer
Institute (NCI) and National Center for Advancing Trans-
lational Sciences (NCATS). Significant NIH investment is
spent on Center Core grants, particularly the NCI Cancer
Centers, and the Clinical Translational Sciences Award
Program supported by NCATS. The Office of the NIH
Director’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning,
and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) also has a substantial
investment in animal and biologic resource centers that
provide models of human biology and disease for basic to
clinical studies to researchers around the world. Many of
these centers function like cores, as they provide the
following: 1) high-quality, disease-free animals; 2) access to
sophisticated technologies and facilities, as well as special-
ized animals; and 3) expert training by professional staff and
consultation services. As an example, the NIH-supported
National Primate Research Centers provide facilities,
animals, and expertise for investigators who use nonhuman
primates for biomedical research, facilitating .1000 indi-
vidual research projects annually. The DPCPSI investment
in core facilities also includes support through its Shared
Instrument Grant program to purchase or upgrade
expensive, specialized, commercially available instruments
or integrated systems. This program promotes cost
effectiveness; encourages optimal sharing among investiga-
tors, research groups, and departments; and fosters a
ADDRESS CORRESPONDENCE TO: Franziska B. Grieder, Office of Research
Infrastructure Programs, DPCPSI, Office of the Director, NIH,
Bethesda, MD 20892, USA (Phone: 301-435-0744; Fax: 301-480-
3819; E-mail: griederf@mail.nih.gov)
doi: 10.7171/jbt.16-2701-004
collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. In many
settings, the instrument is integrated in a centralized core
facility. Through these investments and many other
programs not listed, NIH’s annual support for research
cores is estimated conservatively at $900 million. Given this
large investment, it is critical that both NIH and the research
institutions receiving support for these resources identify
and implement approaches that enhance core resource
efficiencies.
The value and importance of optimal management
and achieving highest efficiency—two aspects that strengthen
biomedical research and the pace of scientific discoveries—
are not always appreciated. To identify core facility
efficiencies, NIH recently published the results of a core
consolidation experiment that was conducted under the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The results
indicate that centralization can be successful for those
types of cores that are amenable to consolidation. Core
consolidation can eliminate redundancy and inefficiency
associated with small cores that cannot afford or justify the
advanced, high-throughput instrumentation or higher-
level experts available in large, consolidated facilities. Many
research institutions have multiple core facilities that
appear to provide similar or even identical services to user
groups. The results of the core consolidation initiative
demonstrate that significant increases in core services, use,
and annual program income are possible in the majority of
settings.
In March 2015, NIH cosponsored a workshop with
the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities
(ABRF) to discuss core facility management and strategies.
The primary outcome of this workshop was a set of
recommendations for the NIH and the research institu-
tions that included moving toward sharing, improving
communication and coordination of issues related to NIH-
supported core facilities, and developing inventories of
core resources. Workshop participants also recommended
that institutions each develop a core strategic plan that can
facilitate coordination among all core facilities, invest in
specialized expertise in financial management, and develop
and disseminate models for governance of research core
Journal of Biomolecular Techniques 27:2–3 © 2016 ABRF
facilities, including transparency in business practices,
annual reviews, and recruitment of senior laboratory
members.
Recognized as a key challenge is the knowledge of what
shared services and technologies, such as those provided by
core facilities, are available and where they are located. The
discovery of information about core facilities can be
exceptionally difficult. This issue of the missing core
inventory was also addressed in a recent NIH Extramural
Director’s blog, encouraging institutions to evaluate their
core facility portfolios, developing inventories of core
activities, and indexing their services within and across
organizational units. The ABRF members and leadership
have discussed the need to develop inventories of their core
facilities, both internally and across institutions or within a
geographic region.
A common myth among institutions is that the policy of
NIH does not allow sharing of core resources. In fact, NIH
actively encourages the shared use of core facilities and has
policies that allow sharing. These and other policies for cores
are published—summarized as frequently asked questions
JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR TECHNIQUES, VOLUME 27, ISSUE 1, APRIL 2016
(FAQ)—on the NIH Office of Extramural Research Grants
& Funding website. The FAQs were developed with
extensive input from NIH staff and the extramural
community and cover such topics as the cost of NIH-
funded core facilities and general core operating principles.
Scientific collaboration to address human health questions
has become a hallmark of biomedical research; access to
shared resources is critical to accelerate discoveries for
progress in scientific research.
Support of NIH for core and research resources has
enabled many research institutions to develop sophisticated
core facilities. It is important that funded institutions,
especially those that are facing challenges of sustained core
support and productivity, avoid duplication of shared
resources services and identify and implement approaches
that enhance their efficiencies. Given the NIH budget
constraints, it is important to determine how to support the
best science with the available resources. NIH will continue
to enlist the help of research institutions to identify and
implement approaches to enhance the efficiency of core
facilities to amplify scientific discoveries.
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