Operations and Maintenance Support - Supporting Advanced Research in Engineering and Science (s-ARIES)

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This proposal supports Advanced Research In Engineering and Science (s-ARIES) at the University of Alberta nanoFAB Centre. The nanoFAB was formed from the merger of 13 related CFI, WD and Province of Alberta capital projects, totaling $84M, resulting in a single national open-access centre providing essential training, service and collaboration capabilities within Alberta, Western Canada and Canadian micro- and nanotechnology ecosystem. Over the last 365 days, ending Oct 19, 2016, the nanoFAB has been accessed by 870 unique individuals, from 162 groups, utilizing 58,262 tool hours, across 202 available pieces of equipment, underscoring the value provided. The value of the nanoFAB, aligns with the high priority afforded nanotechnology by the UofA through the 2014 Strategic Research Plan, provincial government Alberta Research & Innovation Plan and placement of NRC/NINT at the UofA. The nanoFAB provides a professionally managed environment for the access to specialized equipment and laboratory space, that would be inefficient or cost prohibitive for individual researchers. This includes; advanced micro and nano- scale fabrication, with Canada's only open access photomask service (printing 381 masks over the last 365 days), and full range characterization suite, with advanced ion/electron microscopy, surface spectroscopy and bulk analysis tools. This results in a centralized, integrated approach to device development and materials analysis, for micro and nano technology. Critical to ensuring the sustainability of such a valued resource, consisting of 25,000 square feet of specialized laboratory space and responsibility for training and development on 202 pieces of equipment, is operational support. s-ARIES will address a projected deficit due to constraints of operational support, which results in high user fees. The lack of consistent operational support causes the lose of developed expertise through layoffs, reduces training capacity, shutters much needed capabilities in demand by internal and external researchers and companies, causes further research to be prohibitively expensive and only available to well funded groups, and ultimately will lead to dramatically reduced research and industrial outputs. s-ARIES support will ensure a robust environment for continued research success by providing for operational staffing support and the potential for reduction of user fees.