A core facility is a collection of scientific equipment and highly qualified technical staff made widely available to the research community. The three current core facilities at the Department of Clinical Science: Flow Cytometry Core Facility, Genomics Core Facility and Metabolomics Core Facility, cover important common functions by MOF and UiB as well as regionally and nationally. They are available to all academic users on the same favorable terms and for commercial users of the University’s conditions for contract research.

The department administers the Faculty’s policy regarding sharing of costs and co-authorship when faculty core facilities are used. This policy means that all higher education researchers in Norway, health trusts included, gain access on equal terms, including the same price. More on this see: http://www.uib.no/mofa/67221/kostnadsdeling-og-medforfatterskap (in Norwegian).

The economy of all core facilities will be partially secured through user fees, and through operating models which address the need for reinvestment and equipment renewal.

To ensure that the core facilities are able to provide the best possible service to the communities it is a goal that they are tightly integrated with scientists who are leaders in their fields. Use of core facilities should thus be a more attractive option than buying your own equipment and pay own technical staff, both cost-wise and methodical. Experience has shown that core facilities are the best way to give researchers in Norway access to an updated and maintained instrument park, and to the methodological knowledge they do not have themselves and equipment and staff they could not afford.

The way the core facilities at MOF are operated is based on experiences from the NRC FUGE initiative. The core facilities are operated and financed by the Department / MOF in cooperation with the University of Bergen, Helse Bergen, Helse Vest, the Faculty of Science, Bergen Research Foundation, NRC, and individual groups of researchers.

Important to remember – If the use of a core facility forms part of the basis for a scientific publication the core facility should be mentioned in the acknowledgment section of the publication, for example: “Parts of the work was carried out at the NAME OF CORE FACILITY and was thus supported by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bergen and its partners “.

Two great new additions to be especially mentioned are: CyTOF – Mass cytometry with single-cell proteomic opportunities – for Flow (equipment has been delivered and is being tested), and NRC infrastructure funds for equipment for complete human genome sequencing to Genomics.

Roland