Core facilities in developed countries: challenges and opportunities

This article presents the findings of the study focused on operation of research core facilities in foreign countries. The main aim of the research is to identify the most promising methods of raising the efficiency of research infrastructure, based on the study focused on operation of university core facilities in developed countries. The core facilities of the leading universities of the U. S., Germany, United Kingdom and France were selected for the study. The research focused on the human resource management, sources of funding and management tools applied in research core facilities. The results showed that research core facilities in developed countries experience the problems typical for their Russian peers: decreasing financial support from the government, lack of highly qualified researchers and managers and low marketing activity. As the national governments in most developed countries are cutting support for science, the quantity and quality of services provided to external users is growing dramatically. The article addresses various methods of cost reduction at research core facilities that are free of negative impact on service quality. The conclusion is drawn that adaptation of foreign experience in the Russian research core facilities will need, first and foremost, to cultivate the employees' entrepreneurship consciousness and ability.