Research Facility Shared Practice Program

A Peer Group for Those Who Manage Research Facilities

The research facility shared practice group is comprised of those who manage research facilities, and has helped participants save an average of about $1.25 per square foot annually.

This group grew from a private benchmarking program started by IBM two dozen years ago to include a number of private research organizations and government laboratories.

All non-profit, private, and government research organizations are welcome to participate in this program.

Two page PDF about the program.

Who are the Participants?

Participants include government labs, research campuses of major corporations, healthcare organizations, and universities. Many tend to have larger, complex facilities such as labs on a mixed-use campus.

Some leading organizations who have participated over multiple years include:

Argonne National Lab
Battelle
Corning Inc.
Fred Hutch
Oak Ridge National Lab

The 2017 annual in-person meeting included attendees from Battelle, Fred Hutch, ORNL, INL, PNNL, and the Ohio State University.

Facility Issues’ Research Facilities Benchmarking Group is an outstanding source of benchmarking data to help any research organization understand their performance relative to similar organizations. This has proven to be helpful in planning and budgeting more than a few times and given me valuable insights on where we can and should look for efficiencies. The special topic surveys provide additional depth and perspective for the selected topics.

The secondary and arguably greater benefit is the collaboration within the group. The annual Best Practices Conference is always a great event. We’ve hosted other members between meetings and reached out across organizations to get ideas and seek feedback. Members are always quick to offer their experience and insights whenever they are called upon.

ities improvement and budget analysis.
Joe Cruz, Atkins

I got the most benefit from introduction night, the flip charts (open conversations, insight into other issues), and the lab tour.
Timothy Keen, Argonne National Laboratory

What Is Included in the Research Facility Shared Practice Program?

For 2023, the primary activity will be the monthly shared practice meetings (example schedule shown to the left, example agenda here).

Participation in the program is by organization, so any staff member of the organization can attend meetings based on their interest and availability.
Participation in the program is restricted to research organization staff to provide the peer group environment for discussion (some meeting presentations may be by service providers).
Most months also have a shared practice survey on a topic related to the meeting.

Benchmarking of facility-related metrics is included to the degree desired. Facility Issues has templates for a wide range of facility metrics and compiles the results in an interactive MS Power BI report for reference by all participants.

Key metrics of interest will be selected by the participating organizations.
Each organization is assigned an anonymous code to identify their position in the benchmarking results. Data is not shared outside the group.

An annual in-person meeting will be held when a host organization has been identified (More information)

Ready to Register, Have Questions, or Just Want to Stay Informed?

Register to receive more information about this program, or just to be on the mailing list for related information on meetings and special topic surveys – you can unsubscribe anytime.