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)的研究项目近年来保持稳定或增长，即使面对不确定的金融时期和国家医疗保健系统的变化。在2011财年，超过479名研究调查人员得到了美国国立卫生研究院的资助，对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。基准表明，到2020年，中国经济将继续温和增长。因此，在收入流不断下降的环境下，弗吉尼亚大学发现自己面临着竞争和极具挑战性的增长和基础设施维护需求。这项申请要求提供资金，以解决目前被认为是最优先考虑的动物研究基础设施需求。具体地说，要求提供资金，以加强范德比尔特普雷斯顿研究大楼啮齿动物设施的遏制做法和业务效率。未得到充分利用的食物储存/准备、验尸和走廊空间将用于扩大公共关系科肮脏的笼子洗涤区。这样做将提高PRB啮齿动物设施的效率，并更好地遏制污染的笼子，降低病原体在Vanderbilt独特而有价值的小鼠模型中传播的风险。此外，还将购买新的隧道和机架垫圈，以更换能源效率低且难以维护的陈旧设备。新设备将提高公共关系科设施的吞吐量，并与校园内的其他笼子清洗设施提供冗余。技术的进步将显著地节省用水和能源(每年大约节省82%的水和51%的能源)，从而减少VU笼式清洗作业对环境的影响。这些改进将用于直接支持来自18个研究所的132名VU富有成效的教职员工正在进行的研究，NIH奖励总额超过8800万美元(年度总成本)。如果获得资金，这项申请将为Vanderbilt提供一种机制，以维护现有的基础设施，同时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。此外，所要求的设备更节能、更节省空间，这与该机构保护自然资源和减少碳足迹的倡议是一致的。

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.