Proposal for Developing and Improving Animal Research Infrastructure at Vanderbil

描述（由申请人提供）：范德比尔特大学（VU）的研究项目近年来一直保持稳定或增长，即使面对不确定的金融时代和国家医疗保健系统的变化。在2011财政年度，超过479名研究人员得到了NIH的资助，来自所有外部来源的竞争性研究补助金的支持超过4.49亿美元。基准指标显示，到2020年，中国经济将持续温和增长。因此，VU发现自己面临着竞争和极具挑战性的需求增长和基础设施维护在收入流下降的气候。该申请要求资金用于解决动物研究基础设施的需求，目前被认为是最优先的。具体来说，需要资金来加强范德比尔特大学普雷斯顿研究大楼（PRB）啮齿动物设施的控制措施和运营效率。未充分利用的饲料储存/准备、尸检和走廊空间将用于扩大PRB脏笼洗涤区域。这样做将提高PRB啮齿动物设施的效率，并提供更大的污染笼子，降低病原体在范德比尔特独特而有价值的小鼠模型中传播的风险。此外，将购买新的隧道式和机架式洗衣机，以取代能源效率低下和难以维护的老旧设备。新设备将改善废物处理设施的吞吐量，并与校园内的其他笼子清洗设施提供冗余。技术的进步将提供显著的节水和节能（每年约节约82%的水和51%的能源），从而减少VU笼洗涤操作对环境的影响。这些改进将用于直接支持132名富有成效的VU教师调查人员正在进行的研究，来自18个研究所的NIH奖励（年度总成本）总计超过8800万美元。如果获得资助，该申请将为范德比尔特大学提供一种机制，在继续投资于支持新举措和成功研究项目增长所需的空间和设备的同时，维护现有的基础设施。此外，所要求的设备更节省能源和空间，这符合该机构保护自然资源和减少碳足迹的倡议。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Vanderbilt University (VU) research programs have remained stable or grown in recent years, even in the face of uncertain financial times and changes to the nation's health care system. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, over 479 research investigators were funded by the NIH and support for competitive research grants from all external sources exceeded $449 million. Benchmarks suggest continued modest growth through 2020. Thus, VU finds itself faced with the competing and extremely challenging demands of growth and infrastructure maintenance in a climate of declining revenue streams. This application requests funds to address the animal research infrastructure need deemed currently to be the highest priority. Specifically funds are requested to enhance containment practices and operational efficiency of Vanderbilt's Preston Research Building (PRB) Rodent Facility. Underutilized diet storage/preparation, necropsy and corridor space will be used to expand the PRB dirty cage wash area. Doing so will improve efficiency of the PRB rodent facility and provide greater containment of soiled caging, reducing the risk of the spread of pathogens among Vanderbilt's unique and valuable mouse models. In addition, new tunnel and rack washers will be purchased to replace aged equipment that is energy inefficient and difficult to maintain. The new equipment will improve through-put within the PRB facility and provide for redundancy with other cage wash facilities on campus. Advances in technology will provide significant water and energy savings (approximately 82% water savings and 51% energy savings per year), thereby reducing the impact of VU cage wash operations on the environment. The improvements will be used to directly support the ongoing research of 132 productive VU faculty investigators with a total of over $88 million in NIH awards (annual total costs) from 18 institutes. If funded, this application will provide a mechanism for Vanderbilt to maintain existig infrastructure while it continues to invest in space and equipment required to support new initiatives and growth of its successful research programs. In addition, the equipment requested is more energy- and space-efficient, which is consistent with the institution's initiative to conserve natural resources and reduce its carbon footprint.