Two units at the Core Facilities research platform have qualified following applications to the Swedish Research Council in the fields of advanced microscopy and biological mass spectrometry respectively. Meanwhile, Core Facilities is adopting a number of major changes in response to faculty demands, scientific progress and the new requirements that researchers are facing.
Coordination of national venues is a growing trend among Swedish research infrastructures. Last fall, the Swedish Research Council invited Swedish universities to apply to become national nodes in the fields of advanced microscopy and mass spectrometry. Joint applications by Chalmers University of Technology and Core Facilities at the University of Gothenburg qualified in both fields.
“Both Proteomics and the Center for Cellular Imaging (CCI) received sterling evaluations,” says Göran Larson, Head of Core Facilities. “CCI is regarded as a well-established and experienced infrastructure with ambitious objectives, and Proteomics is described as a paradigm and potential model for others in the field of mass spectrometry. We are very pleased by the confirmation that our open infrastructure is the right way to go.”
Decision within a year
In addition to Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, the Royal Institute of Technology, Umeå University and Stockholm University qualified in the field of microscopy. Karolinska Institutet and Lund University qualified in the field of mass spectrometry. Those in charge of the nodes have been invited to participate in a discussion about the national organization of the infrastructures, possible overlapping or complementary activities, and financial issues. The Research Council is expected to make a general policy decision late in the year and a final one in March 2016.
Core Facilities recently expanded to become an institution-wide research infrastructure at the University of Gothenburg.
“That kind of recognition is important to us,” Prof. Larson says. “The university strives for a superior institution-wide infrastructure, and this is an acknowledgment that we are meeting these goals. We will now also be in a better position to enter into the agreements and collaborative arrangements required to operate in a national venue.”
The change will demand the addition of two members to the Council for Core Facilities—one external and one from the Faculty of Science.
The Research Council has also recently closed other applications for infrastructures. In collaboration with the Faculty of Science, Karolinska Institutet and Lund University, Mammalian Protein Expression (MPE) has submitted an application concerning the Swedish Infrastructure for Integrated Structural Biology (SWEDSTRUCT). Bioinformatics has also participated in a submitted national application (NBIS) as well. CCI is also part of Swedish Bioimaging (SBI), which has submitted one national and one international application. Experimental Biomedicine (EBM), which is responsible for the university’s animal facility , may eventually be part of a national consortium in its field. EBM is already included in a national-wide educational consortium for planning and for using animal models in research.
About Core Facilities
Core Facilities is an open research platform at Sahlgrenska Academy. The platform currently consists of seven units that make advanced technical equipment and skills available to all researchers: Bioinformatics, Centre for cellular imaging (CCI), Centre for Physiology and Bio-Imaging (CPI), Genomics, Laboratory for Experimental Biomedicine (EBM), Mammalian Protein Expression (MPE), and Proteomics.
Major changes on the way
Ever since Core Facilities was launched in the early 2000s, its explicit vision has been to serve as a flexible platform that proceeds from faculty subsidies to offer the most advanced technologies that biomedical researchers require. Genomics, which analyzes genetic material, is engaged by researchers at the university and increasingly by Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The effort clearly needs to grow stronger in collaboration with the region. CPI, which offers sophisticated physiological and biological imaging technologies for characterization of rats and mice as disease models, will probably have to be phased out due to its apparent inability to meet the growing requirements it faces. The faculty is currently drafting a proposal concerning this matter.
AV: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN