Abstract
The conception of core facilities at a research university influences their organization, funding, and research impact. At Emory University, we conceive of core facilities as ‘Force Multipliers.' This concept, derived from my experience as a US Navy surface warfare officer, implies that the most valuable attributes of an organization are those which enable successful completion of multiple missions. In the case of core facilities, we imagine that they should not only efficiently provide services for investigators, but they should also aid in the recruitment and retention of faculty, help acquire and maintain cutting-edge research platforms, and promote interaction and collaboration. Most importantly, cores are knowledge centers where good ideas are shared, and bad ideas are identified and not repeated. This idea has been systematically implemented through the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (EICF, http://cores.emory.edu) at Emory University, which includes 16 distinct core facilities and the Division of Animal Resources. Further expansion of this concept led to the Georgia Core Facilities Partnership, which provides investigators access at internal rates to more than 95 core facilities at eight institutions in the state of Georgia. Organizational strategies, lessons learned, and measures of research impact will be presented.