Model letter of agreement – equipment loans
Model letter of agreement for equipment loans between institutions, developed jointly by Cambridge University and the Association of University Practitioners.
Using equipment.data to make research equipment more discoverable
Adrian Cox, based at the University of Southampton, is project manager for equipment.data, an EPSRC funded project in response to the need to improve visibility and utilisation of UK higher education research equipment. We sat down for a ten minute chat with Adrian to find out exactly what equipment.data is all about and how it’s creating opportunities for efficiencies among institutions UK wide.
N8 highlights the impact of asset sharing across UK universities
The report, which reveals asset sharing's role in delivering innovation, increased productivity, and maximum value for public investment, helped to shape Thursday's Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money report by Universities UK.
Raising the return – how do we do it?
In the final blogpost in our series on asset sharing, Sarah Jackson and Luke Georghiou say that despite the progress in this area, more work must be done to deliver full benefits.
Equipment sharing: how to make an impact (and evidence it)
Dr Hamish McAlpine from the University Bath and Dr Steve Trowell from the University of Exeter talk about the simple steps we can take to become more efficient in how we support equipment through its life. These steps are also very amenable to measurement, offering the opportunity to benchmark and improve over time.
Peter Simpson of N8: ‘deep collaboration is now the norm’
The N8 group of northern universities has a new director, Dr Peter Simpson. We caught up with the former AstraZeneca department head who nurtured collaborative projects at the pharmaceutical giant to find out his plans to encourage collaboration in higher education.
The efficient lab – maximising the use of scientific research equipment
The S-Lab programme aims to improve laboratory efficiency and effectiveness in all dimensions, including scientific value, resource efficiency and staff well-being. Director Peter James discusses the laboratory good practice and improvement ideas that that have emerged from the S-Lab award scheme and events.
Sharing research equipment: how can we do it better?
Last year staff from Jisc set out to better understand institutional and researchers' needs around sharing research equipment. Senior co-designer Daniela Duca reveals the team's findings.
Tell Jisc your equipment sharing needs
Jisc is carrying out a survey to better understand the decision to share a piece of equipment and interact with equipment databases. This ten minute long survey aims to help the team behind equipment.data support institutions and to establish requirements for additional features or an improved user experience.
What are the real efficiencies from sharing equipment?
If sharing is largely collaborating then are we collaborating as much as we can? Or are we focussed on the need to collaborate more when actually such activity is fully optimised? Therefore is the question we should really be asking ourselves: “How can we become more efficient?” We have always needed partnering for knowledge or resource reasons, and we will continue to have these needs, possibly procured in more efficient processes. However, the business processes and support for our research equipment is where there is a real potential for more efficient and effective practice. Read more of this article in the July equipment.data e-newsletter.
