How Virginia Tech turns core facilities into revenue generators attracting and retaining top research talent

Ensuring the sustainability of core research facilities in higher education institutions—while maintaining research-focused expert services, operating under limited budgets, and retaining talented staff—remains a significant challenge. Rituraj Borgohain introduces a new management model that has been developed, tested, and proven successful at Virginia Tech through the careful operation of core research facilities to enhance productivity and elevate research output, talent attraction, and retention. He illustrates application of the model to Virginia Tech’s Materials Characterization Lab, which provides state-of-the-art instrumentation and access at no cost to university-affiliated researchers. He charts what can be achieved in terms of revenue generation with industrial partners and training the next generation of researchers -- and what this kind of initiative takes to implement.