Research Administrative & Fiscal Affairs
Transforming tomorrow by Supporting the Research Enterprise

What is a Core Facility?

Core Facilities are operating units that provide goods and/or services, primarily to University departments, for a fee based upon actual incurred costs and have total annual direct costs exceeding $50,000. Two categories of core facilities are recognized at the University of Kentucky.  Major core facilities have total annual direct costs exceeding $500,000. Cost components that may be included in the billing rate for a major service center are the total direct cost of operations plus indirect costs for building depreciation, equipment depreciation, and maintenance and operations. Major core facilities have a budget family of 21. Minor core facilities have total annual direct costs exceeding $50,000 but not greater than $500,000. Cost components that may be included in the billing rate are the total direct cost of operations plus indirect costs for equipment depreciation. Minor core facilities have a budget family of 22.

Research Core Facilities

Shared-Use Core Facilities

  • Core Facilities
    The Office of the Vice President for Research oversees the following shared-use core facilities:
    • Animal Behavior Core (ABC) The ABC offers validated and reliable testing of mice over a broad range of physiological and behavioral domains, including general health, cognitive, emotional, sensory and motor function. The core conducts mouse behavior tests for UK investigators, ensures that qualified and trained investigators have access to state-of-the-art instrumentation and expertise necessary to perform behavior tests, and assists in the design, implementation and analysis of behavioral experiments in mice.
    • Division of Laboratory Animal Resources (DLAR) DLAR, a support unit for animal-based research at UK, provides the best possible veterinary and humane care for the laboratory animal species used by researchers at UK. Highly skilled and dedicated staff technicians and technologists are certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. The staff includes registered and licensed veterinary health technicians who monitor the health of research animals on a daily basis. They provide care and treatment where needed under the direction of the veterinary staff. In addition to the animal care program, DLAR offers technical services, complete surgical resources, pathology, breeding colony management, and species specific training.
    • Energy Balance & Body Composition Core (EBC)  The Energy Balance and Body Composition Core (EBC) provides the equipment for measurement of lean/fat mass and whole body metabolism in mice.  Because the primary focus of the COCVD is to identify mechanisms linking obesity to cardiovascular disease, it is imperative to obtain a sensitive, reproducible quantitative analysis of these measures of adiposity and metabolism. The Echo MRI is utilized for non-invasive quantitative assessment of lean and fat mass.  The Sable Promethion Calorimeter indirectly measures oxygen consumption (RER), food and water intake, and physical activity in mice.
    • Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Core The Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Core Facility offers state-of-the-art flow cytometry cell analysis and high-speed sorting to the research community at UK and has been in continuous operation since 1983. The skilled staff provide a variety of flow cytometric approaches for multiparameter fluorescent analysis and sorting of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell types. Cell sorting and analysis is also available for live human cells and infectious (BSL-2 level) samples. Training on analytical cytometers is available to investigators and their staff so laboratories can analyze their own samples at reduced cost.
    • Light Microscopy The Light Microscopy Core offers state-of-the-art imaging equipment for research on biological systems, ranging from neuroscience to physiology, and cutting-edge materials science. The core offers free training to UK researchers on the following equipment: Nikon AR1+, Zeiss PALM Laser Microbeam, Nikon N-SIM N-STORM Super Resolution, Philips TECNAI12BT Electron Microscopy, Leica TSP SP5 Confocal with Environmental Chamber, Leica TCS SP5 Inverted Confocal with Multiphoton Laser.
    • Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center (MRISC) MRISC is a service and consultation center supporting basic and clinical research at UK. The center includes an advanced 3T Siemens Magnetom Trio scanner with high performance gradients, echo-planar whole body imaging and hydrogen spectroscopic capabilities for both human and animal studies, and a Bruker/Siemens 7T MR scanner for animal studies with adjacent facilities for animal handling, preparation and care. There are also computing facilities, electronic and fabrication shops, and a multi-user laboratory available to support magnetic resonance and spectroscopy studies. Scientific and technical personnel are available to help in developing MR sequences and procedures, and with image-processing analysis.
    • Proteomics Core Facility The facility offers proteomic analysis services to the scientific community on a fee-for-service basis. These services are available to faculty, staff and students from UK, from other educational institutions, and to individuals from the industrial sector. The focus is identification of proteins and peptides and characterization of protein modifications. In addition to mass analysis of intact proteins, the core also performs proteolytic digestions of proteins, the products of which can be further analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry for peptide sequencing and interrogation of protein modifications.
    • Pathology Research Core The Pathology Research core facilitates the COCVD projects by providing equipment and technical expertise to embed and section tissue specimens and perform chemical staining of tissue sections to be examined, photographed, and analyzed chromogenically by light microscopy. 

Core Facility Operations

Billing Process

  • Internal Billing - UK Departments
    • Billing for the Research service centers is processed through the RABIT database. The services performed by each service center are entered each (either by a member of the service center or by Katie Carter). When a faculty member, or their representative, requests a service they must provide a valid account number on which to process the charges. Once the service is complete, the service center member will enter the data into RABIT. Each 10-digit account has a corresponding budget officer. If the budget officer is not found in RABIT, please contact Katie Carter and she will enter the budget officer into the database. Sometimes two or more faculty members share an account number and are coinvestigators on an account. This is acceptable in RABIT but when entering data for these types of accounts, note which investigator the charge is for in the remarks field of the transaction screen. This will show on the invoice that is sent to the main investigator. All invoices for UK faculty are processed on the second business day of the following month. For example, invoices for July are processed on the second business day of August. These invoices are electronically sent via email to the faculty member and the business officer noted on the account. All invoices for outside customers are mailed out via the United States Postal Service by Katie Carter. Occasionally a faculty member or business officer will request that posted charges be moved to another account. Determine the reason for the transfer. If the service center made a mistake in charging the wrong account, then the service center, or Katie Carter, will correct the mistake. If the service center was given incorrect information, the department business officer will need to make the correction. Should a rate for a service need to be changed, please contact Nancy Ison. Rates are set an annual basis and approved in Sponsored Projects Accounting and the University Budget Office. It is possible to change rates mid-year, but should be avoided. Should you have any questions concerning accounts, business officers or invoices you can contact Daniel Hall (257-4257 or daniel.hall@uky.edu) or Nancy Ison (257-1116 or nancy.ison@uky.edu).
  • External Billing - Non UK Customers
    • We do not accept credit card payments for services from external customers. Please have all checks made payable to the address listed below.   University of Kentucky  c/o Katie Carter 105 Kinkead Hall Lexington, KY 40506-0057  
Ordering Gases

  • Scott Gross e-Store
    • This new site is designed to service UK departments. It is a secure and simplified way to order gases. The site includes all Scott-Gross Company, Inc. UK contract items and reflects the contracted pricing. Instructions on getting started (pdf, 1pg) on the site or go directly to the site to order. As a reminder, for any single item/equipment that is $2,000.00 or more, a requisition will need to be done in SAP for the purchase of that item. All Procurement Card policies and procedures apply. For questions on getting started, about the site or to order an item not listed on the site, contact 859- 252-7667 or 800-967-6874. Please note that orders requesting same day delivery must be called in to customer service (859-252-7667). Questions can also be emailed to cservice@scottgross.com. 
Printers & Copiers

Computers & Accessories Purchases

  • Electronic Purchases
    • For software or hardware peripherals, please email either Steve Creager or Billy Clark. Please copy Nancy Ison on the correspondence. If you need a new computer, please contact Nancy Ison first to ensure you have money in your budget and to have the purchase approved. Once you have the purchase approved, please contact Steve Creager. For other supplies, contact Katie Carter if she does the ordering for your service center. If you do the ordering for your service center, please use SRM and open a shopping cart to order through Office Max or the Dell Catalog.
University Procurement Cards

  • ProCards
    • Service center personnel requesting a departmental Procurement Card (ProCard) must complete a Procard Application (pdf, 1pg). If approved, the cardholder will attend Procurement Card Training. The UK ProCard allows for efficient purchase of small dollar acquisitions and is the primary purchasing method for delegated small dollar purchases. Some items are restricted from being purchased with a ProCard and those items can be viewed on the restricted items list (pdf, 2pgs). See the Purchasing section to see more information about obtaining & using a ProCard, the cardholder manual & ProCard policies.
Communications & Network Needs

  • Phone, Fax, & Network
    • Should you need Communications service on phone, fax, Ethernet or network line, please contact Nancy Ison. Please have the following information available: Your communications or network need. The room number and building code for service. The account number for your service center. A contact person for communications. A contact phone number for communications.   A Communications request will be sent and you will be copied on correspondence regarding the request.
Computer Assistance

  • Research Information Services
    • Should you experience problems with your computer, please contact the Research Information Services (RIS) department. Submit requests via the Kaseya icon on your desktop or via email.

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