Increase your research lab productivity by measuring researchers against ROI

In theory, productivity metrics have a closer connection to research labs versus other space types. Research space has more quantifiable outputs, such as publications per researcher and indirect cost recovery. However, institutions have found it difficult to track how productively space is used because of data accessibility issues. As a result, individual researchers often continue to occupy their labs regardless of changes in grant funding or productivity.

One solution is to establish a space productivity benchmark to track individual researchers against. This enables institutions to gauge how productively space is currently used and link researcher productivity to future lab allocation decisions. Learn how the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) moved towards a more productive use of their limited research space through a home-grown lab allocation process based on indirect cost recovery.