Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jul;20(3):180-5.

Association of biomolecular resource facilities survey: service laboratory funding

Rachel Ogorzalek Loo  1 , Charles M Nicolet, Ronald L Niece, Mary Young, John T Simpson
Affiliations

Association of biomolecular resource facilities survey: service laboratory funding

Rachel Ogorzalek Loo et al. J Biomol Tech. 2009 Jul.

Abstract

In 2007, The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) Survey Committee surveyed the ABRF membership and scientists at-large concerning the current state of funding in service-oriented laboratories. Questions pertained to services offered, cost recovery, capital equipment funding, and future outlook. The web-based survey, available for 3 weeks, achieved participation from 209 respondents in 13 countries, 77% of which represented academic laboratories. Most respondents (75%) directed their laboratories. Laboratories depend largely on institutional support and customer recharges to fund operations, but National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation Shared Instrumentation Grant programs are considered critical to meeting future needs. Source allocations supporting capital equipment acquisitions, operations, and laboratory director salary are presented.

Keywords: ABRF; Capital Equipment; Core Laboratory; Institutional Support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Summary of survey participants.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(A) Services offered by 200 responding laboratories. (B) Services offered by 23 laboratories less than 3 years old. Abbreviations: LC-MS (liquid chromatography-MS), DNA Seq (DNA sequencing), 2D (two-dimensional), DIGE (differential gel electrophoresis), Bioinform (bioinformatics), Edman (Edman degradation or N-terminal sequencing), AAA (amino acid analysis), PepSyn (peptide synthesis), Prot Interact (protein interaction analysis), qPCR (quantitative PCR).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Sources of laboratory support (excluding funds for capital equipment and director's salary). Abbreviation: Inst. (institutional)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Extent to which service laboratories are funded via (A) institution, (B) customer recharge, or (C) grant (excluding director's salary and capital equipment). Individual responses are sorted by percent support for each chart.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Extent to which various expenses are recovered from service fees: (A) labor, (B) consumables, (C) service contracts, and (D) instrument depreciation. Individual responses are sorted by percent recovery for each chart.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Percentage of facility director's salary obtained from institutional monies, based on 141 responses.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Mechanisms supporting capital equipment purchases in service laboratories based on 160 responses. Abbreviations: Institute (internal institutional support), Grant (competitive government grants), SIG (shared instrument grant), State (state/provincial/local competitive grants), State Ear (legislatively earmarked state funds, noncompetitive), Fed Ear (legislatively earmarked federal funds, noncompetitive), Donor (foundation/donor grants), Endowed (endowment for laboratory), Recruit (faculty recruitment or retention), Depreciate (instrument depreciation), Fees (service fees or recharges).
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Perceived difficulty obtaining capital equipment.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Perceived importance of NIH and NSF SIGs for acquiring capital equipment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sol-Church K, Bintzler D, Forrester J, Keefe R, Kristt D, Lytle C.FARG 2006 Survey: A Comparative Study of the Methodology and Instrumentation Trends of Laboratories Performing DNA Genotyping, http://www.abrf.org/index.cfm/group.show/GenomicVariation.40.htm
    1. Wiebe GJ, Pershad R, Escobar H, et al. DNA Sequencing Research Group (DSRG) 2003: a general survey of core DNA sequencing facilities. J Biomol Tech 2003; 14: 231– 237 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ivanetich K, Niece RL, Rohde M, Fowler E, Hayes TK.Biotechnology core facilities: trends and update. FASEB J 1993; 7: 1109– 1114 - PubMed
    1. Ivanetich KM, Bibbs L, Niece RL, et al. Biotechnology instrumentation survey. Genet Eng News 1997; 17: 17, 19, 47
    1. Niece RL, Naeve C, Williams KR.Activities and history of ABRF. In Flickinger MC, Drew SW.(eds.): The Encyclopedia of Bioprocess Technology: Fermentation, Biocatalysis, & Bioseparation, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1999; 2089– 2120

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources