The University of Pittsburgh houses a wide variety of shared core facilities across departments, schools, and campuses that promote positive research environments.
Our mission is to provide centralized support that enhances the ability of Pitt’s Shared Research Core Facilities to perform transformational research.
A shared Research Core Facility (an “RCF”):
Many Pitt facilities meet this definition, so we differentiate a level 1 (L1) RCF from level 2 (L2) RCF. An L1RCF is supported by the office of the senior vice chancellor for research, is of large physical or virtual scale, is used daily by many research groups inside and outside of Pitt, and is governed by a Faculty Director and a Facility Manager. An L2RCF is supported by other means (e.g., by a school or a department), is of smaller scale, is used by two or more research groups, and is typically governed by just a Faculty Director.
The Vice Chancellor for Research Infrastructure, Robert Cunningham, working with Directors of Shared Research Support Services across Pitt, is responsible for helping build resources for research core facilities.
Each L1RCF is supported by two key people:
Two committees coordinate university efforts, each with a different set of responsibilities and membership.
The L1RCF Review Panel consists of Facility Directors and shared research directors, is focused on improving existing facilities and supporting leadership at those facilities. It has the responsibility of reviewing capital proposals and selecting winning proposals each year. Decisions will be based on how well a new piece of equipment supports new research, training, and collaboration, among other metrics.
The L1RCF University Advisory Committee consists of Faculty Directors and Assistant or Associate Deans of Research and is focused on improving intra-university large-scale science and collaborations. It reviews the results of annual surveys and annual reports developed by facility managers to share best practices, identify potential improvements to existing facilities, develop new collaborations to pursue sources of funding, and to admit new facilities or to end support for existing facilities that no longer meet membership criteria. It will also coach new applicants on how to improve proposals to increase the likelihood of acceptance.
We are working towards a single centralized Pitt/iLab portal to assist researchers in acquiring shared university resources. This system includes some of our core facilities from the upper campus, the lower campus, and Hillman Cancer Center.
Plans and Opportunities: Over time, we aim to bring all shared cores into this portal. If you are the director of a shared research facility and are ready to transition to this centralized system, please look at the section entitled “Migrating to Pitt’s Core Connector”.
Grants and Publications: The use of data generated in a core facility in a grant application, progress report or publication requires that the principal investigator or authors acknowledge the core facility. Many core facilities are supported by federal agencies, and acknowledgement is tracked for mandatory progress reporting and continued support. We use Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) to assist with this tracking. See our citation guideline for recommended text and commonly used RRIDs.
Authorship: If core personnel provide significant intellectual input to the results submitted for publication, then it is reasonable and appropriate to include them as co-authors. Since circumstances vary greatly, the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities provides excellent and detailed recommended guidelines.
University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Investigators
To use iLab Core Facilities Management, registration for an iLab account is required.
Other Investigators
To order services from our core facilities, external customers need to register for an account. This is a one-time setup procedure; external customers can reuse the same account number for future billings and multiple P/Os.
The University of Pittsburgh offers our faculty access to advanced and up-to-date shared equipment, and to experts that perform services that enables world-leading experimental research.
Much of today’s advanced research requires access to instruments, facilities, and services that too expensive for individual faculty to obtain and too complicated for individual laboratories to maintain. Some equipment is sensitive or fragile or uses or produces dangerous chemicals and requires special building designs addressing constraints on floor strength, electromagnetic radiation, vibration, or air handling. Increasingly, faculty work together on large-scale collaborative research projects, leveraging shared resources that are professionally managed.
A few examples of the types of equipment and services offered are described below. Full details about equipment and all services currently offered are available through our lab management software.
DMG MORI precision milling machine. This instrument is a precision Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) mill, which can make parts and prototypes from the smallest to the largest sizes far faster, more capably, and with minimal user intervention. It is used in prototyping and manufacturing for everything from quantum experiments to building repair wheels for the Allegheny Observatory.
Mass Spectrometers. The university has multiple liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometers, from manufacturers including Agilent and SCIEX models. Some systems support sample preparation, chromatography, and mass spectrometry, as well as software to acquire high-quality data.
Cancer Bioinformatics Services (CBS). The CBS provides comprehensive bioinformatics support for translational genomics at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. CBS provides support for all aspects of genomics studies, from experimental design to data analysis to publication, and for all genomic Next Generation Sequencing applications, including RNA Sequencing, whole exome sequencying (WES) and many others are supported. CBS teaches genomics classes at the Health Science Library System and the center for research computing.
iLab software defines four roles which apply to most users.
The first role is a Research Core Facility (RCF) user, or RCF member. Almost all students (undergraduate and graduate) and most postdocs will fit in this role. Those acting in this role will need an account and will want to be able to log in and sign up for time on a machine or services from a facility.
The second role is as a RCF Director, or institution manager in iLab. Facility directors or their delegates manage the core, develop write-ups enabling access for principle investigators, and handle facility charges.
If you are a principal investigator (PI) and have received funds and an account, we recommend reviewing the iLab PI User Training video, so you can set up your lab and enable those working for you to access and charge your accounts.
If you are a PI and have funding through both the University of Pittsburgh and either UPMC or the Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation (MWRI), then you will have to create a special virtual lab to allow you to charge those accounts (training material coming soon).
Approvers for Use of Non-Sponsored Accounts (e.g., 02 and 04 accounts)
The first time a Principle Investigator (PI) requests access to an 02 or an 04 account, administrators in charge of those accounts will receive an email requesting administrator’s approval. In the email, iLab will provide you with a link to our pitt.ilab.agilent.com site. When you click on the embedded link, the system will tell you who is requesting permission to use which accounts. Please click on the link to approve or reject access to the account. iLab will take you directly to the approve/reject page. If the person should have access, then approve its use. If the person is not supposed to have access, then reject the approval.
Existing shared research core facilities are encouraged to transition their management software to the supported package, iLab. The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research will pay all licensing fees for the software and will provide support from the office and the vendor to ensure a smooth transition.
Pitt’s iLab instantiation is integrated into our single sign on system and our billing backends. It has support for tracking training, and for lockouts that point users who want to use specialized equipment to training modules before they can sign up for a system. Setting this up requires some training; we’ll work with you to both develop an initial configuration that works for your facility, and will show you how to modify this as new training and new equipment come into your facility.
We recognize that different RCFs have different busy seasons and will work with you to schedule a transition at a time that works best for your facility. Email rcf@pitt.edu with the subject “RCF Transition Request” to plan your transition.
Level 1 Research Core Facilities (L1RCF) receive support in exchange for performing several activities. Level 1 and Level 2 facilities are described on the about page.
L1RCFs must be officially authorized and enrolled in campus-level RCF management and cannot unilaterally declare themselves to be such. Authorized cores have both obligations to meet (e.g., annual reporting and user tracking), and privileges to enjoy (e.g., a common IT platform to track usage, access to a central capital funding mechanism for upgrades and equipment replacement).
L1RCFs must follow common best practices, including:
An L1RCF is deemed successful on its ability to support the following:
Facilities that no longer provide broad support for one or more of those areas will no longer be able to be a L1RCF. Facilities that duplicate functionality available elsewhere on campus or in Pittsburgh will be carefully reviewed for need.
The senior vice chancellor for research sets aside funding to cover some L1RCF activities, including purchasing licenses for iLab software required to run facilities. Training is also available for those in L1RCF leadership positions.
From time-to-time Pitt develops new shared core facilities. When we do, it is important that we obtain a new RRID. Here is how to accomplish this:
| Month | Deliverable | Who? |
|---|---|---|
| Jul | Annual Survey of L1RCF; prepared by VCRI with input from University Advisory Committee | Performed by VCRI |
| Aug |
L1RCF Annual Report, reviews/updates application material, and adds a summary of the science supported, a list of publications acknowledging the facility, grants obtained, training accomplished, utilization of devices and services, financials, etc. |
Facility Manager |
| Sep |
Review of Existing Facilities and New Applications |
LIRCF Advisory Committee |
| Mar | Capital requests | LIRCF Review Panel |
| May | Capital funding decisions | LIRCF Review Panel |
| Jan | Review of New Applications (if any) | LIRCF Advisory Committee |
Shared resource administration is uniquely different from running a PI research lab. The University of Pittsburgh encourages our Laboratory Directors to participate in organizations that furthers their skills and grows their network of those in similar positions. Two important organizations for this are ABRF and UGIM. Pitt’s Katz School of Business will also offer a week long summer course for those working in these positions, covering the essentials of leading such an organization and working with faculty.
ABRF offers a business skills workshop that helps orient new core directors to the requirements of federal funding and networking opportunities to share best practices with others in their field, whether that is specifically a technical field, or the challenges common to shared resources.
For technical staff, both UGIM and ABRF offer research groups that develop and carry out benchmarking studies and technology comparison experiments. Working with colleagues to design a robust and reproducible experiment hones staff members’ skills, improving the support they offer users and thus the rigor and reproducibility of those projects.
