Overview

Institute of Science Tokyo (hereinafter: the University) operates under the vision of realizing a virtuous cycle based on academic excellence and thus facilitates research. The most important issue is the consolidation of the University's research infrastructure (devices, human resources, and operating systems). Various initiatives have been pursued to this end, including the consolidation of technical staff. There are many shared facilities at the University that the teachers utilize in large-scale projects. Moreover, many facilities have somehow been kept operational through the faculty's independent efforts, so it is difficult to grasp the extent of the burden on professors and equipment wear and tear. This is a big issue in terms of management strategy. One of our challenges is that we are not utilizing our talented technical staff as partners to facilitate the research conducted by our professors and researchers.

In order to meet this challenge, the University proposed the creation of the Open Facility Center (below, OFC) under the “National University Reform Plan,” and the Center was opened in April 2020. The OFC oversees the research infrastructure of the entire university based on the University’s operation, education, and research strategies––providing the highest standard of research support with facility-sharing at its core. The organization is literally the core facility of the University. With the OFC at its core, the University is driving “I. Integrated Management of Facility-Sharing at the University,” and “II. Training and Certification of Highly-Skilled Personnel for the Research Infrastructure.”

The “Integrated Management of Facility-Sharing at the University” initiative spearheads (i) the launch and promotion of the Shared Facility Promotion Group (system where the sharing of facilities in departments is placed under the OFC umbrella), (ii) the consolidation of facilities, and (iii) the construction of an integrated facility-sharing system. In addition to referrals, reservations, and the collection of fees for using facilities, the integrated facility-sharing system conducts analyses in order to draw up strategic plans related to the research infrastructure (Research Infrastructure Institutional Research). This will help identify the large-scale equipment that needs to be updated or purchased by the University, thereby enabling the evidence-based facilities to operate in the manner envisioned by the University.