MPI-CBG LMF mission

Revision as of 22:38, 9 February 2010

What is a Facility?

From the MPI-CBG Services and Facilities mission statement

1. Many of the cutting edge technologies need well-trained and dedicated staff in order to extract the maximum potential from the technology.
2. A service is defined as a unit that performs service jobs, i.e. applies a technology on behalf of a research group or researcher and returns the analysed results to the researcher.
3. A facility is defined as a repository of knowledge, expertise, reagents and tools that provides the functionality but does not perform the actual work.

So by extension:

• A facility should have open, non preferential, access for all in house (or even on campus?)
• The aim of a facility should be to enable higher quality and increased output of useful science in house (or even on campus?) than if it did not exist.

What is the MPI-CBG LMF portfolio of responsibilities?

MPI-CBG is a Facility, rather than a service - not only in name, but also in practice

But what does that mean in practically? (Should?) MPI-CBG LMF (should?) provide the following: From http://www.mpi-cbg.de/facilities/profiles/light-microscopy.html LMF mission statement:

• ...is to provide access to state-of-the-art light microscopy techniques and instruments along with vision toward future trends.
• ...assist through consultation, training and project collaborations.

Further, these two statements imply the following requirements/responsibilities:

• All research groups (and individuals) should get a fair bite at the resources offered by the facility.

This means

1. There should be enough equipment to go around (so people get stuff done soon enough)
2. There needs to be enough expert staff at hand for maintenance of, and training and assistance on, that equipment in a timely manner (= fast enough to not hold up research)

• All research groups should have a say in how the facility uses its allocated resources, eg what areas to emphasize: equipment, teaching/assistance, and also on how it executes its responsibilities (That's via the LMF steering committee!)
• The facility should act as a resource/repository for expertise, experience, know how etc, which should be retained in a (re)usable open manner, eg. Wiki (This is the retained knowledge of the LMF staff members)

What is the MPI-CBG LMF action plan?

...so how can the facility meet the above responsibilities?

1. Deposit and maintain know how and other useful information in an open Wiki visible to all (... yes, it's this Wiki)
2. Teaching small groups on basic (and advanced) courses is a resource efficient way to increase scientific/technical quality and output of experimental imaging work. All willing predocs, post docs, technicians, RGLs and directors are targets for basic training in microscopy.
3. Internal training spreads knowledge and skills through the staff - so we increase our bus/truck number to >1. Users are not stuck if one of the team is not available.
4. User project info is shared in emails to the whole team: lmf@mpi-cbg and with the user. Again to increase the bus number.