Research Infrastructure Core Facilities at Research Centers in Minority Institutions: Part I-Research Resources Management, Operation, and Best Practices

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 24; p. 16979
• Main Authors: Tchounwou, Paul B, Malouhi, Mohamad, Ofili, Elizabeth O, Fernández-Repollet, Emma, Sarpong, Daniel F, Yanagihara, Richard, Aguilera, Renato J, Ayón, Cecilia, Chen, Xiaoxin, Dasmahapatra, Asok, Gao, Song, Hinton, Cimona V, Holt, Robert, Kolesnichenko, Vladimir, Powell, Michael D, Merchant, Fatima, Redda, Kinfe K, Roche-Lima, Abiel, Shikuma, Cecilia M, Stevens, Jacqueline J, Torres, Jose A, Trotter, Robert T, Wachira, James, Wang, Paul, Wells, Kristen J, White, Jason, Wu, Yanyuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 17-12-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Best practice; Biomedical Research; Collaboration; Community involvement; Community participation; Health disparities; Humans; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Groups; Minority Health; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); Research facilities; Research Personnel; Resource management; Science; Technical services; United States; United States; United States > US; RCMI program; laboratory management and operation; best practices; research infrastructure core
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192416979

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program fosters the development and implementation of innovative research aimed at improving minority health and reducing or eliminating health disparities. Currently, there are 21 RCMI Specialized (U54) Centers that share the same framework, comprising four required core components, namely the Administrative, Research Infrastructure, Investigator Development, and Community Engagement Cores. The Research Infrastructure Core (RIC) is fundamentally important for biomedical and health disparities research as a critical function domain. This paper aims to assess the research resources and services provided and evaluate the best practices in research resources management and networking across the RCMI Consortium. We conducted a REDCap-based survey and collected responses from 57 RIC Directors and Co-Directors from 98 core leaders. Our findings indicated that the RIC facilities across the 21 RCMI Centers provide access to major research equipment and are managed by experienced faculty and staff who provide expert consultative and technical services. However, several impediments to RIC facilities operation and management have been identified, and these are currently being addressed through implementation of cost-effective strategies and best practices of laboratory management and operation.