References

Research Core Facilities Survey Results (Dec 2022)

In September 2022, Associate Vice Chancellor for Interdisciplinary Research and Strategic Initiatives (IR&SI) Cristina Davis charged an AVC Cores Working Group to provide a roadmap (principles & operation) to guide total campus investment over 5- and 10-year timelines in cores that support critical research.  As part of the effort to understand the campus core landscape and researcher needs, the AVC Cores Working Group developed and launched an anonymous survey for the UC Davis research community, including faculty, trainees, staff, students, clinicians, and researchers.  The survey was designed to solicit researcher input on the current and recent use of cores and shared facilities, including challenges, unmet needs, concerns, and comments.  The survey included 19 questions on the Qualtrics platform, and it was widely distributed to the UC Davis community through email lists in early December 2022.  Responses were collected through January 3, 2023.  A copy of the full Research Cores Survey Report can be found here.

Results

Of the 648 retained responses, 546 were completed submissions and 102 were partially completed submissions.  Almost 61% of respondents indicated they were current or recent users of cores.

 

Cores were ranked very highly in importance to the success of research and for the satisfaction of research needs.

Lack of information about cores, and cost of services were cited as two barriers to use of cores.  Subsidizing core fees, providing additional salary support, and acquiring new instruments were the top three investments that respondents indicated would most impact their research.

Respondents were asked to list core services that would be valuable to research but currently not available at UC Davis.  A wide range of needs were described, with the most common requests being areas related to computing, imaging, data analysis, and financial support.