ESPO KU[Equipment Support Planning Office Kochi University]

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Overview of Equipment Support Planning Office, Kochi University
In Kochi University, Science Research Center and Center for Advanced Marine Core Research have been providing many instruments for joint usage to students/researchers inside and outside. Although other departments and centers have jointly useable instruments for members inside, joint usage is even insufficient. In order to highly promote joint usage of instruments in Kochi University, first of all, manpower shortage should be solved and an equipment management system should be developed.

On the basis of this situational analysis for joint usage of instruments in Kochi University, the university established Exploratory Committee for Equipment Development under the immediate control of the President. The chairperson of the committee is the Director of Research, and its members are chosen for the whole university, including the Vice Presidents of Research and the Director of Science Research Center. The committee revises Equipment Development Plan (Master Plan), coordinates requests for budgetary appropriations from departments and centers to demand of funds from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and strategically equips new instruments for advanced research projects. Kochi University also established Equipment Support Planning Office (ESPO KU) again under the immediate control of the Presiden, of which the chairperson is the Director of Research, to solve an equipment management system for the efficient joint usage, reuse, and relocation of instruments, under cooperation with Science Research Center. The main tasks are as follows.
ESPO KU
  1. Constructs a database of joint-usable and reusable instruments fundamentally on the basis of the fixed assert registers of Kochi University.
  2. Promotes the reuse of instruments by relocation and/or reform.
  3. Constructs a web system for the reservation and confirmation of instruments.
  4. Gathers technical staffs to ESPO KU to incarnate sufficient technical support and sets up a quickly responsible support system by technical staffs.
  5. Provides courses for graduates and faculty members mainly on successful examples of newly developed researches by the suitable use/application of instruments.
  6. Strengthens cooperation with Inter-University Network for Common Utilization of Research Equipments and discusses/develops a joint use system with other universities and institutes in Kochi Prefecture.
In order to achieve these tasks, a manager, an administrative assistant, and technical assistants are hired, and about a half of technical staffs of Science Research Center moves to ESPO KU.

Thus, the establishment of effective management and support systems for the efficient joint usage and reuse would lead the increase of the numbers of instruments and the enhancement of the functions of instruments to improve their operation rates, and as a result education and research activities should be reinvigorated.

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