May session: Funding of core facilities – diversity of business models

Date: Thursday, May 27, 2021
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm (CEST)

Summary

This webinar aims to show a wide array of business models used by core facilities, their pros and cons
and practical experiences with their implementation in various European countries. Business models
usually depend on the background of the given facility, history, scientific culture or funding system
for science in the given country. We have identified three distinct business models that provide for
an “academic” classification as follows. Needless to say, core facilities usually combine the models
mentioned above, and typically one of them is prevailing in any given facility.

• Core facilities fully funded by the institute – their establishment and operations financed by the institute, with access fees aiming at partial cost recovery.
• Entrepreneurial core facilities are fully funded by user fees collected by academic or commercial customers (users). The establishment is usually sponsored by a grant to purchase instruments and start operations.
• Government/project funded facilities – costs mostly covered by an external grant for government and funding agencies.

Video recording

Organizers

Ondřej Hradil
Research Infrastructures Manager
Masaryk University
Czech Republic

Patrick England
Head of the Molecular Biophysics Platform
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France

Speakers & presentations

• Fully funded by the institute: Elisabet Carlsohn, Head of SAMBIO Core Facilities, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Entrepreneurial core facility: co-chairs of the session will comment on this business model
• Government/project funded facilities: Ondřej Hradil, Masaryk University and Kateřina Hošková, CEITEC MU, Czech Republic

Further reading material of interest: Funding of UniPROT, https://f1000research.com/articles/6-2051

Elisabet Carlsohn
Head of SAMBIO Core Facilities
University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Kateřina Hošková,
Research Infrastructure Specialist and Project Coordinator at CEITEC Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Ondřej Hradil
Research Infrastructures Manager, Masaryk University, Czech Republic