Management model, challenges, and opportunities for core facilities in research institutes Buenos Aires March2015

Management model, challenges, and

opportunities for core facilities in

research institutes

Buenos Aires March2015

• Founded in 2000

• 31 groups + 6 core facilities

• 410 staff

• 73% foreigners

• Budget: 30M€ (49% core – National and local government; 51% external)

• Position 9 worldwide Q1, Health - Scimago Reports (2007-2011)

• Severo Ochoa center of Excellence

THE CRG IN A NUTSHELL

CRG STRATEGIC GOALS

EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

SCIENCE & SOCIETY

FOREFRONT TECHNOLOGY

ADVANCED TRAINING

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

• The Core Facilities constitute the Institute’s centralized scientific research infrastructure and allow scientists shared access to sophisticated and expensive technologies that would be hard or impossible to set up in each research group independently.

• They are meant to be a meeting point for scientists from different institutes and disciplines, to foster exchange and integration of expertise, and to create and conduct interdisciplinary projects.

CORE FACILITIES: MISSION

Provide the researchers with the BEST POSSIBLE SERVICE

1. Be state-of-the-art with respect to technologies2. Generate optimal benefit with the available resources (work

towards a larger degree of auto-sustainability and capacity to re-invest in cutting-edge technologies)

3. Provide multi-disciplinary training to the next generation of scientists


Provide the researchers with the BEST POSSIBLE SERVICE

1. Be state-of-the-art with respect to technologies2. Generate optimal benefit with the available resources (work

towards a larger degree of auto-sustainability and capacity to re-invest in cutting-edge technologies)

3. Provide multi-disciplinary training to the next generation of scientists

Become a “Reference Centre for Technology”


FOREFRONT TECHNOLOGIES

Histology•

Embedding/sectioning

• Pathology

Advanced Light Microscopy

• Super-resolution (STED)• Two-photon

• Confocal

Genomics• Microarray

• NGS (Illumina HiSeq2000 and 2500)

Bioinformatics• NGS data analysis• Data integration

Flow cytometry

• Becton Dickinson site• 5 analyzers and 2

sorters• Flow karyotyping

Proteomics• Orbitrap mass spec• Qtrap and Triple-

TOF mass spec

Screening / protein tech.• High content

screening• Cloning / Protein

purifcation

SIT• Storage• Computing

Core Facilities Meeting

CRG Executive Board

CRG FacultyMixed Commission

Secretary

2 Finance Officers

ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAMME

Board of Trustees

Director

Head of Core Facilities

SITHistologyScreening

and Protein Technologies

FACSBio-informatics

Advanced Light

MicroscopyProteomicsGenomics

Joint Facilities with the UPF

• Yearly online User Satisfaction Survey

• Individual User Advisory Committees for each Core Facility, 4-5

expert users:• Provide feedback on the quality of the service

• Guide the Facility in terms of technology development/implementation.

• Communication with the users during the facilities’ daily operations:• Initial project discussions

• Status updates during course of the projects

• Follow-up and discussion of the data

USER FEEDBACK

• Courses@CRG

• Technology Symposia

• Internal training

• Participation in UPF/CRG Masters and PhD courses

• Videoclips on website

TRAINING

FINANCIALS

Daily operations and R&D

Competitive Grants Trustees

External Users

CRG Research Groups

Competitive Grants Trustees

Core Facilities Service

• We work with two separate budgets: R&D and services

• Each core facility is given a budget for technology development and daily operations.

• CRG research groups receive an earmarked budget to be spent in Core Facilities.

FINANCIALS

• CRG core facilities operate according to full cost accounting principles. Full-cost accounting:

• Consumables

• Personnel: 80% of yearly working hours

• Equipment Depreciation:

• 5 years for laboratory equipment, 3 years for computational equipment

• 8-12 hours/day, yearly working days

• Equipment Maintenance/Repair:

• 8-12 hours/day, yearly working days

• General Structure = 20% of total cost

• 3 different prices:• Internal (PRBB) = consumables + maintenance/repair + %personnel

• External Public = full cost

• External Private = full cost + negotiation

• Keeping abreast of technologies

• Visibility / Reputation

• Avoid duplications

• Funding

CHALLENGES and OPPORTUNITIES

TECHNOLOGIES

• Keeping abreast of technologies: expensive



• Funding

TECHNOLOGIES

• Keeping abreast of technologies: VERY expensive



• Funding


• Tech scouting and purchase

• Joint projects with providers and other

companies

• Development in-house (dedicated personnel)

TECHNOLOGIES


• Visibility / Reputation: International collaborations


• Funding


• over 284 publications with core facility contributions

• 80 co-authored publications, 11 of them as last author

• 130 out of 206 CRG last-author research papers with core facility contributions

• Core Facilities were involved in roughly 2/3 of the CRG publications

COLLABORATIONS IN PUBLICATIONS

CRG Core FacilitiesCRG Research Groups

Bioinformatics

Genomics

Proteomics

MicroscopyBMS&PT

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

• Reference site agreements with providers: Leica, Illumina, Thermo, ABSciex, Becton Dickinson

• International alliances: PRIME-XS, ESGI, EuroBioimaging, P4EU

• .

6 partners

• Sharing best practice• Training• Scouting new technologies• Capacity sharing• Funding

13 partners

• Promoting excellence• Integration• Attract talent, support mobility• Sharing best practise in

research and management



• Avoid duplications: Agreements with other research

centres

• Funding


AGREEMENTS WITH RESEARCH CENTRES

• UPF (Joint facilities)

• VHIR (Alliance pricing)

• CCiTUB (Use of complementary facilities)

• ICFO (Super-resolution Light Nanoscopy Alliance)

• BSC (High-Performance Computing cluster)

• Spanish networks: Remoa, ProteoRed





• Funding: National funding (decreasing), H2020

(translation and innovation)

• Funding

• Partner with companies (H2020 innovation

projects)

• Collaborate with Hospitals (H2020 translation

projects)

• Negotiate with providers (discounts and

participation in projects)

• Private funding for social projects

FUNDING

STATE-OF-THE-ART

AUTO-SUSTAINABILITY

Become a “REFERENCE CENTRE FOR TECHNOLOGY”

ÒSCAR FORNASFACS

EDUARD SABIDÓ PROTEOMICS

HEINZ HIMMELBAUERGENOMICS

TIMO ZIMMERMANMICROSCOPY

CARLO CAROLISSCREENING andPROTEIN TECH

JULIA PONOMARENKOBIOINFORMATICS

• 40 people

• 3 administrative members not formally belonging to the programme

PERSONNEL

Function Funding Nationalities

Wet lab staff25

Unit Heads6 Bio-in-

format-ics5

Admin4

Scientific IT3

CRG30

Grants (in-

clud-ing co-fund-ing)

8

UPF4

IMIM1

Spain29

Italy3 Aus

tria1

Ger-many

5

France2

Cuba2

Documents

Management model, challenges, and opportunities for core facilities in research institutes Buenos Aires March2015