ABOUT MINES SHARED INSTRUMENTATION FACILITY

What is Mines’ Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF)

Launched in July 2021, Mines’ Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF) provides centralized access to Mines world-class equipment and technical experts to Mines faculty & students as well as to external academic and industry partners.

What are the Goals of the SIF?

Mines’ Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF) provides centralized oversight for the stewardship of key shared research instrumentation. Launched by the Office of Research & Technology Transfer in 2021 in response to the growing number of valuable shared instruments on campus, SIF provides a clear framework to support and sustain operation of and access to existing and future shared capabilities. This centralized framework seeks to address challenges in five key areas for large multi-user instrumentation: administration, staffing, maintenance and operations, awareness, and planning.

Specifically, SIF will

provide a stable support structure, both for the instrument operation and for the instrument managers
provide centralized administrative support to manage the instruments
create awareness of the instrumentation through a common website and other marketing to maximize the impact of the instruments
decrease overall maintenance costs by pooling the risk and negotiating lower-cost service agreements
providing an organized campus-wide approach to acquisition of new high-cost, multi-user capabilities and replacement/upgrading of such existing instruments as they age.

To download a copy of the SIF Policy document, click here: SIF BYLAWS PDF