Striving for More Sustainable Core Facilities

This publication advises CROs on how to establish a sustainable core facilities program. By creating a strong foundation, CROs can provide researchers with the technology they need to grow their work.

Executive summary

Core facilities are defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as:

“Centralized shared research resources that provide access to instruments, technologies, services, as well as expert consultation and other services to scientific and clinical investigators. The typical core facility is a discrete unit within an institution and may have dedicated personnel, equipment, and space for operations. In general, core facilities recover their cost, or a portion of their cost, of providing service in the form of user fees that are charged to an investigator’s funds, often to NIH or other federal grants…Core facilities may be fiscally supported by institutional funds, Federal funds, external revenue, other funding, or any combination of these.”