KOA Facility (SU)

Director: Koichi Matsuo (Professor, School of Medicine)

Main Campus: Shinanomachi

The Keio-Med Open Access (KOA) Facility, the predecessor of the KOA Facility (SU), has worked for ten years since 2009 to advance and improve the convenience of research equipment in the medical and life sciences fields, centered on the Collaborative Research Resources of the School of Medicine (Shinanomachi Campus). Opening its doors to industry, it has collaborated with facilities such as the Electron Microscope Laboratory (Shinanomachi Campus), the Central Service Facilities for Science and Technology Research (Yagami Campus), and the Faculty of Pharmacy (Shiba-Kyoritsu Campus) to promote the cross-faculty "visualization" of research equipment and build a "Shared Support Web System."

Building on this legacy, the KOA Facility (SU) will now enter a new phase, aiming not only to promote advanced academic research but also to become a network hub that encourages the expansion of corporate research for commercialization.

Building a network for the mutual use of research equipment in the medical and life science fields

■ Activities continuing from FY2019: Background, rationale, and goals for continuation

In FY2020, as the second (and final) year of the MEXT Project for Promoting Public Utilization of Advanced Research Infrastructure (SHARE), we will promote the construction of the "ABC Problem-Solving Shared System Network."

Task A (Improving Accessibility, etc.): Formulate and publish specifications that contribute to the standardization of data description methods and interconnection of shared systems, and share information with other institutions. Enable system-level interconnection between the shared systems of participating institutions.

Task B (Introducing Corporate Support, etc.): Build a system (remote support) that allows technicians from multiple companies (support companies) that provide research equipment and technical support, as well as technicians from university shared facilities, to provide technical support to remote users through the shared network.

Task C (Community Building, etc.): The network secretariat will handle administrative tasks and plan and manage project promotion meetings. In cooperation with other participating institutions, we will also consider appropriate inter-university agreements based on the rules of each institution and the opinions of users, and examine and aim to realize the future form of the network after the project ends, such as a multi-institutional consortium agreement.

■ New activity goals, content, and implementation background for FY2020

To be able to apply for the MEXT "Core Facility Construction Support Program," which will be newly established in FY2020, we will spend a year preparing by deepening information sharing with the Office for Research Coordination and Administration, the university-wide coordinating department, and creating a system that enables cross-faculty collaboration.

■ Implementation details for the fiscal year's business plan, research results, and degree of achievement

In FY2019, as the first year of the MEXT Project for Promoting Public Utilization of Advanced Research Infrastructure (SHARE), we worked on building the "ABC Problem-Solving Shared System Network."

We promoted the introduction and operation of the "Shared Support Web System" (SimpRent), which was developed under the New Shared Use Project (a three-year period from FY2016 to FY2018) and has functions such as cross-faculty "visualization" of research equipment, reservations, usage records, and invoice issuance. In terms of inter-university collaboration, we partnered with Shinshu University (a national university corporation) and Tokyo Metropolitan University (a public university corporation). We defined the challenges related to networking shared facilities among the three universities (private, national, and public) as Task A (Improving Accessibility, etc.), Task B (Introducing Corporate Support, etc.), and Task C (Community Building, etc.), and worked to solve them. We were able to leverage the networking experience of the School of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Pharmacy at Keio University, which helped the project progress.

Public relations and information gathering through on-site visits:

The substantive operation of the "Shared Support Web System" (SimpRent) has started, and a foundation has been built for a means to overcome barriers between faculties and universities.