The results of a survey revealed that university researchers use research facilities and equipment outside their affiliated laboratories. They encounter many issues, including “no prior available information” regarding the use of such research facilities and equipment and “absence of personnel with specialized knowledge.” In addition, they indicated a great expectation for the actualization of shared research facilities and equipment, although efforts by universities to achieve this objective have been lagging. Stanford University in the US has various shared facilities and equipment at academic departments and division levels, all of which have high availability and are operated and managed by specialized personnel. To make such shared research facilities and equipment available at Japanese universities, the establishment of several core centers with research facilities and equipment outside a laboratory not to disturb anyone’s research, on the basis of the standpoint of securing research time for researchers is required. Each core center should have own operating and management capacity and need to hire competent personnel. Moreover, conducting field tests among two to three universities is imperative to verify the effectiveness and regulations of such shared research facilities and equipment.
