About

Building Core Facilities

UH has committed $22 million to purchase equipment for new core facilities in five national priority research areas: Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Imaging and Scanning, Data and Sensing, and Automation and Autonomy. The investment will provide equipment for our research community to compete effectively for research awards and excel at delivering the goals and objectives of their research projects. Core facilities optimize investments in equipment and make them available to the UH research community at competitive rates.

University investments

University investments will be used for equipment purchase and space renovation. University resources and user fees will fund the operation, upgrades, and future replacements. University-wide core facilities with state-of-the-art equipment in areas of national priority will increase UH’s competitiveness among the top public research universities.

SELECTION PROCESS

Equipment selection began in 2021. Five faculty committees, one for each priority area, were charged to consult with other faculty and study core research facilities at peer institutions around the U.S. to develop a prioritized list of major equipment together with personnel requirements for operation and maintenance. The committees were asked to list UH researchers who would be likely users of the equipment and estimate the volume of use.

Governance and Operation

Each core facility will be governed by a committee of three faculty with 2-year appointments, renewable for two additional terms. The faculty committee will oversee the operation and supervise the manager of the facility as necessary.

The Shared Services office of the Division of Research will provide administrative support to the University-wide facilities.

Costs

Each core will develop a charge model for user fees and establish the facility as a service center. The billing rates for UH users will follow the university policies for specialized service centers and will cover the operation of the equipment, depreciation, and support for technical staff.

A charge at the current indirect cost rate is added for external academic users. Rates for external users from the private sector will be negotiated for each facility separately.

Details of the operation will be provided on each of the core facilities’ websites.