European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Transcription

1 European Molecular Biology Laboratory Christian Boulin Core Facilities and Services Unit SFI/MMI Technology Platform Workshop - Dublin EMBL Member States Austria 1974 Denmark 1974 France 1974 Germany 1974 Israel 1974 Italy 1974 Netherlands 1974 Sweden 1974 Switzerland 1974 United Kingdom 1974 Finland 1984 Greece 1984 Norway 1985 Spain 1986 Belgium 1990 Portugal 1998 Ireland 2003 Iceland 2005 Croatia 2006 Luxembourg 2007 Australia 2008 (1 st Associate Member) Total Budget (2009) 156 Mio (88 M ) 1

2 The Five Branches of EMBL Heidelberg Hamburg Hinxton Basic Molecular Biology Research Laboratory Central Administration EMBO Structural Biology DESY Grenoble European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) Sanger Centre Monterotondo 1450 staff >60 nationalities Structural Biology ILL, ESRF, IBS, UVHCI Mousebiology EMMA, CNR 2 EMBL s missions EMBL s first mission and priority was to become a world-class centre for molecular life science research. Achieving excellence in EMBL s other missions continues to depend upon the quality of its research. 3

3 A Centre of Excellence in Basic Molecular Biology Research ~ 450 annual publications, 10% in the top ten high-impact journals EMBL top European institute and fourth worldwide in molecular biology and genetics impact (Thomson Essential Science Indicators) 4 EMBL s missions Services Technology Transfer Basic Research Instrument and and Advanced Technology Advanced Training Development Training Scientific support services contribute to all missions 5

4 Infrastructure and Services to the Member States Providing world-class research infrastructure and services to the member states 6 Vision and purpose (1) World-class research demands world-class services: Basic research is rapidly evolving and technological developments influence the directions of research. To meet EMBL s ambitious vision and goals, all its scientific services must be fit-for-purpose Scientific support services must adapt to the continuous changes occurring in the institution and elsewhere 7

5 Vision and purpose (2) Core facilities & ITS represent increasingly important operational and strategic components of institutions as they can help improve: ability to conduct cutting edge research by the faculty competitiveness for recruiting / retaining faculty staff competitiveness for external grant funding Particularly important at EMBL mostly because of the size of its research groups, and its recruiting strategy 8 Why do we have Core Facilities? In 1997, strong recommendation from CB review panel to look at how to better pool resources in light microscopy to cope with increasing needs on capital investment The reality: Trigger to develop the ALMF concept and think about a better organisation of services. In the 90 s, EMBL s budgetary constraints had made investments in stateof-the-art instrumentation rather difficult! By 2000, EMBL launch of scientific programme on Functional Genomics but very limited resources to go for such an ambitious project requiring advanced tools (HT, )! 9

6 Benefits for the EMBL scientists (incl. Oustations) access to high-level, high-quality scientific services enable more high-throughput projects access to competent technical staff avoid duplication of efforts avoid duplication of costly equipment in the labs potential savings due to bulk purchases 10 Benefits for the EMBL Member States access for visitors to clearly identifiable facilities get help and advice from clearly identified people have a kind of technology reference site a facility can play a catalyst role for the networking (ELMI,..) use the facilities for training and practical workshops 11

7 Industrial partners: a win-win situation? For us, partnerships allow early access to the latest technologies Collaboration allows industry to get the right feedback from expert users For industrial partners, the CFs provide a showcase in a working lab environment Substantial cost savings for EMBL (e.g. equipment, consumables & maintenance) Sustainability issue? No, see Corporate Partnership Programme 12 Timeline: establishment of the Core Facilities 1998 Advanced Light Microscopy Facility 2001 Genomics CF (GeneCore) Proteomics CF (ind. Partners) Protein Expression & Purification CF Monoclonal Antibody CF (in Mtdo) 2003 Electron Microscopy CF Flow Cytometry CF 2004 Chemical Biology CF (joint DKFZ + Uni. HD) 13

8 Core Facilities and Services Unit Staff count (41) (13) (24) 14 Basic rules for the operation of the CFs The Head of each CF is responsible for user satisfaction Services need to be fast and efficient, at the best possible price No own scientific projects (except Team Leaders) Work on a service basis (no co-authorship but acknowledge CF) All CFs have a user committee representing the Units Access for visitors from Member States & EMBO YIP is a must As for other EMBL Units, Core Facilities are reviewed every 4 years by EMBL SAC & External expert panel 15

9 The Heads of CFs & IT Services C. Antony EMCF A. Riddell FCCF J. Lewis CBCF J. Krijsveld PCF R. Lück ITS V. Benes GeneCore R. Pepperkok ALMF H. Besir PEPCF A. Sawyer MABCF 16 Staffing evolution ( ) ALMF 3 7 Mitocheck HCS service (3) & Imaging Centre (1) GeneCore 8 8 Exchanged 1 position for bioinformatician Protein Expression & Purification EU Access PCube Proteomics 2 3 Monoclonal Antibodies 1 2 Flow Cytometry - 1 Electron Microscopy 2 3 Software support Tomography Chemical Biology 4 6 Computational chemist Note. The Heads of CFs are not included in these numbers 17

10 Core Facilities Staff turnover ALMF: over the past 5 years 100% renewal of the 3 SM! --> HoCF in Basel, Barcelona & Lausanne Proteomics: over the past 3 years 100% renewal of 4 SM! --> HoCF Cologne (MPI) + industry (2) & MPI (1) Other CFs: relative stability, however there will be high turnover in the coming years due to the 9 years rule. 18 Scientific support services: expectations Cutting edge Cost effective (outsourcing?) Reliable (delivery) Responsive to scientific users Capable of responding to technological advances Aware about new technologies (horizon scanning) High quality (QC) Staff expertise, good service leaders, state-of-the-art equipment, adequate funding and a lot of hard work 19

11 Core Facilities & Services at EMBL: a change in culture Core Services are visible and accessible Clear institutional commitment Have a role in strategic research plans Increased sharing of research equipment Readiness to invest and place instruments in a facility Changes driven by the perceived usefulness of operating equipment within Core Facilities and IT Services 20 Scientific support services: priorities Meeting EMBL s needs Cost recovery Service provider role Reliable/consistent services Capacity to change Partner/collaborator Services to Member States Development of cutting-edge services Management of the Core Facilities is a multi-parametric equation and has a number of constraints. A challenge 21

12 Unit Budget (annual) Unit global staff costs: 5200 K 2010 figures Core Facilities IT Services Support Services Heading 2 & K 1798 K 1270 K In relation with EMBL s MS contributions: 11% In addition, income for ext. services & technology transfer Extra funding from other EMBL Units highly appreciated and needed Still work to be done in collaboration with Finances to have improved reporting of financial data 22 Human resources: turnover & recruitment Recruitment according to EMBL principles (help from other Units) All hired on 3 years contracts + turnover (up to 9 yrs) No predocs / postdocs however trainees welcome Help in development of technical qualification (incl. soft skills) Improved cross-training within facilities More difficulties in finding people with excellent expertise! Need for initial training and therefore overlap is important 23

13 Major investments in the past 4 years Continuous investment in IT Services (storage & compute power + networks) Core Facilities: all required major investments for additional equipment Some examples: EM Tomography & sample preparation Analytical instrumentation for proteins analysis Flow cytometry (Cytopedia & lasers) BiaCore & chemical libraries for ChemBio Spotter for monoclonal antibodies production Mass spectrometry equipment NGS & associated sample prep. instruments LM hardware and image processing tools 24 ITS challenges for the future 1977: EMBL-HD s on-line storage capacity 2 X 66 MB from CDC major users: Xtallo (film scanning), EM, 3D computer graphics Today: close to 1 PB major users: LM, EM, genomics, NGS, bioinformatics dbs Near future? - Trends in LM, live imaging, more channels, new technologies - Automated EM, larger tomography data sets - MP Sequencing based on imaging, 1000 genomes, applications - Increasing use of HPC for modelisation, simulations 25

14 World-wide sequencing data production is now just an order of magnitude behind CERN data level prediction The Large Hadron Collider produces 15 petabytes per year The LHC grid is 140 computer centres in 33 countries centered on CERN (Tier 0) 2009 sequencing; 15 petabytes of data in hundreds of centers in dozens of countries with two Tier 0 sites (EMBL-EBI & NCBI) 26 Charging for Core Facilities services All services except E & L microscopy and flow cytometry Based mainly on costs of consumables and maintenance costs of equipment No charging for human resources Users invoiced on a monthly basis through Finance Sect. (budget monitoring) return to the Facility s budget Pricing available on the Intranet or by consultation No major complaints about the costs of services! 27

15 Core Facilities & Technology Transfer Light Microscopy Incubator (100 +) Monoclonal Technology - several licenses sold through EMBLEM Spin-off EMBL researchers & Chemical Biology CF 28 Access to some Core Facilities services Infrastructures for the European Science community in structural biology - funded by the EU grant P-CUBE. Provides free access to Protein Expression & Purification CF as well as to Advanced Light Microscopy Facility 29

16 Horizon scanning Why? To address (anticipate?) future user demand To evaluate technological progress To find alternatives, more cost effective ways Examples: New Generation Sequencing new possibilities as well as cost! Imaging technologies LM/EM correlative microscopies Outsourcing of internal services better use of internal resources 30 User survey 2009 Aims Do our services meet the needs of researchers at EMBL? Is the usage of existing facilities appropriate? Are the users satisfied with the provided services? How do our services compare to other facilities? What is missing? Format Web based questionnaire CFs: all Units consulted except EBI & Administration ITS: all HD Units + Administration 31

17 Survey Dec What needs to be improved? Increased role of user committees & membership CFs Web sites to be improved (Extra & Intranet) - on-line project status monitoring - better doc. on available instrumentation Regular review of costs for services (in-house & ext.) Improve dialog with administration (finances & HR) Convince heads of services & staff to increase their soft skills Encourage users to acknowledge the use of CFs in their papers 33

18 Scientific services: sustainability In 2000, EMBL s Council gave a significant budget increase for the launch of Core Facilities including funding for staff and equipment. In 2006, Council was again supportive and maintained the funding for scientific services at an adequate level. Next scientific programme and indicative scheme: The level of support from our member states will be key for the future of the scientific services at EMBL. 34 Self-sustainability of Core Facilities? Conflicting issues: What do users want from CFs? Answer: cutting edge technologies fast, high quality & reliable services Continuous need for investments in new technologies Costs of maintenance contracts! Where do the come from? (scientists pocket or institution) 35

19 Summary Provide high-level, high-quality scientific services, helps recruitment, supports EMBL model (young PIs, limited group size) State-of-the art equipment and competent technical staff CF set-up avoids duplication of costly equipment and efforts Support internal and external research projects (capacity limited) Training courses for both EMBL and external scientists Provide advice in setting up technical facilities in member state institutes Interact with industry as technology developers or β testers 36 Other hidden benefits for EMBL? EMBL s mission: Services to its Member states * Access to equipment, technologies, services not easily available in their home institution/country Priority access to facilities for EMBO YIP & Partner Institutes Staff training to operate developing facilities Practical workshops: professional training (>10/yr) (*) also for NMS/Potential accession MS 37

20 Conclusion EMBL has a good set of core facilities, well equipped & appreciated by the scientific community Core facilities are ideal places for Science and Technology to meet for the benefit of the two worlds EMBL benefits, at various levels, from the existence of the CFs. 38 Concluding remarks Recent SAC Review & help to achieve our Service missions Challenges ahead, future ambitious EMBL scientific programme High workload, however rewarding Scientific excellence and Service staff motivation are compatible! it s all about creating a real Service oriented spirit for the staff of the CFs and nurturing it! 39

21 Thanks a lot 40