Thanks to a one-time program sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, campus researchers will be able to use the latest in microscopes, wind tunnels, mass spectrometers, electron beams, surgical robots and a number of additional systems and tools that enable research and discovery.
One of those tools, a $600,000 small-animal optical imaging system, will arrive on campus this summer.
"Without this program, it is unlikely we would have purchased this system outright," said Stephen Boppart, the principal investigator on the proposal and the U. of I.'s director of Imaging At Illinois, who also is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering with appointments in the departments of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering.
Ilesanmi Adesida, the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said securing funding for equipment can be challenging, in part because of the scarcity of federal programs that specifically support equipment purchases.
"Doing cutting-edge research requires cutting-edge equipment," he said. "We know that recruiting and retaining the best faculty and other research staff isn't simply about salaries and benefits. It's about access to the infrastructure and tools that enable discovery."
Boppart, also a full-time faculty member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, said 40 faculty members supported his imaging equipment proposal.
"This is a relatively small, compact imaging system that allows for three-dimensional imaging of small animals (rodents), samples and biospecimens," he said.
The system can detect various types of emitted light and create 3-D images, even if the light is coming from inside the sample or specimen. It is commonly used in cancer, neuroscience, and infectious disease research to visualize the disease process and treatment, and its 3-D X-ray capabilities can be used to image anatomical structures.
"An advantage of the system is that imaging can be done quickly in living animals, repeatedly and without harm, usually in 5 or 10 minutes," he said.
Boppart said details about how to qualify for access to the equipment would be announced once the equipment is delivered and installed. It will be located in the Beckman Biomedical Imaging Center, which houses a number of additional pieces of equipment that members of the Illinois research community can access.
"This system will be a shared-user resource, meaning anyone on campus, after training, can sign up and use this for their research," he said. "There will be a small user's fee associated with this, but there also will be a pilot research program where users can test first (to determine) if the system is right for their needs."
The funding program was offered last fall in a competitive application process, with heavier weight given to collaborative proposals that would provide the greatest impact on campus research. It was funded by Indirect Cost Recovery, money the university retains from externally sponsored projects to support administrative and infrastructure costs. Campus units were asked to provide funding of at least 50 percent of the purchase price of the equipment. This percentage was considered an integral part of the proposal - purchases benefiting just a few investigators required a higher match than those benefiting dozens of researchers.
In all, 33 of the 45 proposals were funded after being judged by a panel that included representatives of nine colleges and research institutes from across campus, as well as the OVCR and the Office of the Provost. The program requires that the equipment be installed and functional by the end of calendar year 2015.
Peter Schiffer, the vice chancellor for research, said he was pleased with the quality and scope of the proposals, and that they would have a long-term impact on the campus.
"The projects were varied, and the applicants had to make the case that there would be multiple users for the equipment," he said. "This is about creating transformative infrastructure that will significantly enhance the work of the Illinois research community and position us to be even more competitive in securing sponsored funding."
The OVCR website has a list of the facilities that offer access to this equipment and additional resources for researchers.