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The University of Southampton
Interdisciplinary Research Excellence

Supporting efficiency in research equipment asset management and utilisation

Published: 7 October 2015
Adrian Cox

An update from Adrian Cox. Following the Wakeham Review and introduction of the new EPSRC Equipment Guidelines, HE has seen a great deal of activity focussed on improving asset management, equipment database development and utilisation.

RCUK (EPSRC) has also recently adopted the recommendation from the UUK Efficiency, effectiveness and value for money report that ‘all OJEU and above publically-funded research equipment should be published on equipment.data.ac.uk’.

In response to the challenges under the ‘equipment sharing’ agenda, the University has introduced a Research Facilities and Equipment Database: http://data.southampton.ac.uk/facilities.html.

To ensure the quality of data and data management for this database, it has been integrated into the process for adding major equipment purchases to the University’s fixed asset register. To support this, R&IS and Finance, has published some useful guidance: ‘The Research Equipment Asset Lifecycle guide’, which is available on the Finance Intranet here. This provides information for all stages of the process, from the requirement for a piece of equipment, to describing it on the equipment database.  

This helpful guide for academics and support staff will point to a range of useful information such as the Researcher Portal, the University’s equipment capitalisation policy, and a guide for finance staff on adding /amending data published from the Agresso facilities and equipment module.

All data published via the University’s Research Facilities and Equipment Database is automatically published on the National Equipment Portal, equipment.data.

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