University of Wisconsin plans to create a centralized location for the Office of Campus Research Cores to provide technologies, services and other research resources to the campus community.

These facilities collect resources to help the research community on campus. The Office of Campus Research Cores seeks to help students and faculty navigate through the many options to find what they need.

As a research university, UW offers many technologies and information that individuals would otherwise not have access to, Richard Moss, School of Medicine and Public Health senior associate dean for basic research, biotechnology and graduate studies, said.

The creation of the Office of Campus Research Cores will make those research resources more accessible by having one established, centralized core facility to maintain UW’s competitive position as a research university, Moss said.

The project began in December 2014, when the vice chancellor for research and graduate education appointed a task force for researching the campus cores, Moss said. Several months later in April, they submitted the recommendations for the new project.

Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Norman Drinkwater said the new office will be on the third floor of Bascom Hall and will open after a director is chosen.

Andrew Richards, chief of staff for the Office of the Vice Chancellor, said in the future, UW hopes to be able to fund a small research cores office. There are also some suggestions for creating an advisory committee to evaluate the cores and make recommendations about costs that could be improved.

“We expect the director to focus on is creating inventory and coordinating informations and disseminating the information to people on and off campus,” Richards said.

Though it’s a work in progress, Richards said everything is starting to move, the selection process will begin and a director listing will be posted for the rest of the month.

No additional money was gathered from their existing budget in support of this project, Drinkwater said.

Though many cores currently receive grants, Moss said future funding could possibly come from the project itself. Funds from core research areas in less demand could be conserved to save costs and used later to purchase new technologies or set up new cores.

Moss said while the office will place the highest priority on students and faculty on campus, approximately 10 to 20 percent of the space will be available for outside organizations to rent. Any research resources not being used could be made available to businesses and individuals outside of the university, Moss said. Many individual cores on campus already offer this in return for a fee.

Drinkwater said the Office of Campus Research Cores will coordinate access to research technology and services to ensure resources are not underused. But more importantly, this access will allow for collaboration in research.

“An additional goal is to get people working together and talking to each other,” Drinkwater said. “Many cores have an overlapping sense of expertise so it’s useful to have them talk to each other about services and problems they may have.”