Shared Resource Management (SRM)

SHARED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: PROJECT SUMMARY The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center (MCC) Director named Paul Fawcett, PhD, the Associate Director for Shared Resources (SR) in 2010 to ensure that MCC’s SR facilities operate efficiently, evolve effectively to serve cancer center members, and offer access to cutting-edge, relevant technologies to drive MCC member science. Fawcett is charged with overseeing a centralized management structure to monitor, optimize, and forecast needs. He is extremely adept in this role as he also serves as VCU’s Director for Research Infrastructure, making him ideally positioned for leading Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) Shared Resources Management efforts. Six SRs are presented in this renewal application along with four developing SR. To ensure the SRs are actively responsive to member needs, Fawcett conducts ongoing review, evaluation, and analysis of SR operations at MCC as well as strategic planning, instrument acquisition coordination, cost-effective business modeling, communications and promotions, and education and training. Fawcett consults with the highly qualified Directors from each SR with whom he meets regularly to ensure he has full knowledge of current usage, members’ need, operations, issues, etc. Each SR has an advisory committee of subject-area experts that provide insights for further SR developments. Fawcett regularly provides updates on the operation of SRs to the MCC leadership, and in consultation with them, he reports recommendations to the MCC Director regarding growth needs, capital investments, expansion or closure, with the Director having final authority. Fawcett is supported in his duties by the MCC Administrative Core as well as the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI), which jointly manages five of the six SRs. In his institutional role, Fawcett is tasked with ensuring that VCU and MCC SRs adhere to applicable regulatory mandates of federal and state law. This includes annual cost estimation and rate setting to ensure the SRs provide cost-effective services to MCC members; therefore, his dual role greatly benefits MCC. With insights from the MCC leadership, SR Directors, advisory committees, and regular user surveys, Fawcett maintains superior operations for all SRs so that they evolve with the science and provide access to transformative technologies and services required to stay at the forefront of cancer research.