The Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) is announcing a $3 million Infrastructure Initiative to promote investment in high-impact, next-generation scientific equipment at its member universities. The Initiative aims to make modern and powerful tools available to the CBC research community at a time when federal grants for scientific infrastructure are scarce.
The CBC is a partnership between the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and is designed to stimulate research collaboration in Chicago.
"Chicago leads the nation with this new model for more economically acquiring cutting-edge technology for multiple institutions," said CBC scientific co-director Shohei Koide, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. "This initiative enables the establishment of transformative instrumentation capabilities, which will allow Chicago-area researchers to stay at the forefront of biomedical discovery."
The CBC crafted the Open Access Initiative in May 2014 in order to create a cooperative effort that gives CBC researchers access to core facility instrumentation and expertise at each other's institutions with no additional "outsider" cost.
The Infrastructure Initiative builds upon this agreement by giving each university $1 million to acquire novel, state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation to be shared under the Open Access Initiative. The universities closely collaborated to ensure selected instruments are complementary and non-redundant. Each will contribute additional resources, including space, staffing and long-term support in order to efficiently utilize the new instruments.
"The CBC's generous grant will provide a welcome addition to the University of Chicago's state-of-the-art instrumentation and allows talented scientists from around our partner institutions to perform groundbreaking work," said Donald Levy, PhD, Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories at the University of Chicago.
The three Infrastructure Initiative projects receiving CBC funding are:
The CBC was launched in 2006 in response to a Searle family challenge to the three Chicago-based universities: design a plan that would enhance local biomedical research in a unique, Midwestern-style that fosters collaboration rather than competition.
"The CBC grant helps augment and expand our research capabilities by allowing us to add to an already robust array of equipment available not only to UIC researchers, but also to our colleagues at Northwestern and University of Chicago through the Open Access Initiative," said Mitra Dutta, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Research at UIC.
Supported by the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, the CBC has helped advance the biomedical community in Chicago through a variety of programs, including the establishment of infrastructure facilities, aiding in technology acquisition and funding research grants.
"Thanks to the generosity of the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, this latest gift will build on our existing expertise in cryoEM," said Jay Walsh, PhD, Northwestern's Vice President for Research. "It will also strengthen the CBC and our partnerships with the University of Chicago and UIC."
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For more information on the CBC visit http://www.chicagobiomedicalconsortium.org .