As lead University on the Uniquip project, a Research Council funded initiative aimed at facilitating and driving developments in the sharing of research facilities and equipment datasets between UK universities, the University of Southampton was very pleased to host a highly successful two day seminar in September. Over 20 universities came together to discuss how best to achieve equipment and facilities sharing, debating issues such as vocabulary development, technology, sustainable practices and the future for creating national data sets.
The delegates participated in interactive workshops and heard presentations from guest speakers including our own Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, and Lesley Thompson, director of EPSRC.
Southampton launched its own innovative system based on our successful Open Data service to facilitate the internal sharing of research facilities and equipment in June this year. This database provides a number of benefits to research staff including enabling the identification of suitable resources to be included in support of research bids and improving opportunities for grant funding under new Research Council guidelines. For more information, visit http://southampton.likn.co/research/centres_facilities/facilities_equipment_database.shtml