Facilities Management, Maintenance and Operation Core

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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND OPERATIONS CORE: ABSTRACT The productivity of the investigators for which George Mason University’s (GMU) Biomedical Research Lab (BRL) supports, is directly correlated with limited interruptions to access containment laboratories and the equipment within them to conduct innovative infectious disease research. The BRL has a facilities management and operations structure as well as processes in place that have enabled consistent certification since the BRL was approved by the CDC to conduct BSL-3 and Select Agent work in 2012. Furthermore, the BRL’s Select Agent registration was renewed for three years in February 2023. As the BRL transitioned from a college to a university level core facility in the Institute for Biohealth Innovation in March 2022, a GAP analysis was completed by internal stakeholders and separately by Facility Dynamics Engineering. Collectively, these exercises identified opportunities for improvement to ensure that the facility, which is currently twelve years old, is properly maintained and appropriately staffed. The Facilities Management, Maintenance, and Operations core will implement a comprehensive BSL-3 facilities preventative maintenance and upgrade plan to ensure continuity of operations, continued compliance with federal regulations, and a safe and secure facility. This upgrade will include succession planning for continuity of facilities and operations leadership and incorporation of training for facilities engineers and facilities leadership. An effectively managed facility with expanded training opportunities, will ensure efficient utilization of laboratories, enable advanced knowledge of new and existing systems, continued certification of the BRL, staff retention, and support overall safety of staff and the environment.