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![in research facility IACET Authorized Provider](https://orf.od.nih.gov/PublishingImages/IACET%20Accredited_Provider%20logo.jpg) NIH Launches Virtual Tour The National Institutes of Health is excited to share the new NIH Virtual Tour in English and Spanish ! This dynamic, interactive tour showcases the depth and breadth of NIH's important work turning discovery into health. The tour features 20 in-depth virtual tour stops on the NIH Bethesda campus. Visitors can select the full tour to experience the breadth of NIH's work or choose special tour tracks, one designed specifically for patients and caregivers interested in NIH clinical trials and one designed for researchers and others to explore opportunities to work, collaborate, or train with us. Each stop features interviews with NIH senior leaders, administrators, and scientists who share information about their work. Additionally, the tour's interactive map allows users to learn more about buildings, services and campus-wide amenities like parking, shuttle information, cafeterias and cafes, restrooms, lactation rooms, and more. All aspects of the tour are fully accessible for all visitors. Through the NIH Virtual Tour, visitors from all over the world can experience NIH and learn more about who we are, what we do, and our impact on health. Please see for yourself and take the NIH Virtual Tour . ![in research facility](https://orf.od.nih.gov/AboutORF/News/PublishingImages/Pathways%20for%20students%20logo.jpg) Pathways For Students & Recent Graduates to Federal Careers Awards and Recognition ![in research facility External website link](https://orf.od.nih.gov/SiteCollectionImages/exitsmall.png) - traffic.NIH.gov - Roadwork/Traffic Improvement Projects at or near NIH, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), Map Your Route To & From Work, Commuting Resources, Construction News updates, Upcoming Projects, State and County Road Improvements .
For a building emergency, 24/7 call 301-435-8000 For all other requests follow procedures on Maintenance Service Requests webpage Every effort has been made to ensure that the information available on our website is accessible to all. If you use special adaptive equipment to access the Web and encounter problems when using our site, please let us know. Email: ORF Response and we will provide the information to you in an alternate format. It would be helpful if you can be as specific as possible when describing the information you seek. © Company 2013 An official website of the United States government Here's how you know Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS. A lock ( Lock Locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. ![in research facility Nighttime scene of a hilly area with five buildings, including observatories, against a background of a star-filled sky.](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/hero_small/s3/2023-04/xBD201805-00354-042_CC.jpg.webp?VersionId=6iUyplbYZuAqqQGSapcBdBPEjJv86TI8&itok=yeO4a9IT) Facilities and InfrastructureWe support cutting-edge research facilities and infrastructure that span the globe, from mountaintop observatories and ocean vessels to powerful electromagnets and supercomputers. Every day, researchers use NSF's facilities and infrastructure to devise new materials for manufacturing and medicine, improve responses to natural catastrophes, understand weather and climate patterns, and explore extreme environments — from celestial bodies to the Earth's poles and ocean depths. - Find funding for research infrastructure
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What we support![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-07/PF7118_summit_h.jpg?VersionId=4KGOfxNP1lWfZVv297_H9dBxV5BiLTQ1&itok=yWHS_mJx) Enabling discovery and innovationBy providing state-of-the-art research facilities and infrastructure, we empower scientists and engineers to explore, experiment and discover new frontiers. Our programs include: - Major Research Instrumentation (MRI)
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![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/PF5046%20_1021_SOIL-4-WEB-2.jpg?VersionId=gZ7QCQRPk0w5aX3GYf04askso_gz23JP&itok=kYxC9z8D) Addressing societal challengesOur research facilities and infrastructure help researchers address societal challenges such as biosecurity, U.S. competitiveness, climate change, and socioeconomic and regional inequities. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/ENG-LASER-TEC_h.jpg?VersionId=AsbsfZjjFEql7dV3h3wt0ow73mc8TRVY&itok=SJ-vVwkc) Enhancing training and workforce developmentWe provide access to research facilities and infrastructure across the U.S., ensuring the nation educates and maintains a skilled, diverse and forward-thinking science and engineering workforce. Our major facilities![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/12_3_LastDay-2.JPG?VersionId=psbnW..ibILi9mV.HyIFhmP9ptv0ofts&itok=jWWt9sMs) U.S. Academic Research FleetFeaturing over a dozen research vessels ranging in size, endurance and capabilities, the U.S. Academic Research Fleet supports research on the structure, dynamics, chemistry and biology of the ocean. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/PF4039_gould-rigid-hull-ship-HR.jpg?VersionId=BLqOFqS5GN_xHgxdcqjJnvFtkHwxZvmg&itok=6dHWglfX) U.S. Antarctic ProgramNSF has managed the U.S. science presence across the Antarctic continent for more than 60 years. NSF-managed facilities and infrastructure there include: - Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
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![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/media_hub/Zoom_black_wave_logo_v03.jpg?VersionId=.nJQ5Q_W57R9L7sluAK1Ky7YOHaLB0vD&itok=zEHN2sNJ) Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of GeosciencesGAGE is a distributed facility that enables a diverse research community to make advances in understanding Earth processes that would otherwise not be possible — providing broad access to geodetic instrumentation, field training and support, and data services. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/GBO_Jay_Young_023.jpg?VersionId=wwJbS8aQP4lh7F0TCfBPNgrKilzbtk5d&itok=CzkRlym2) Green Bank ObservatorySince its inception in 1956, Green Bank Observatory — home to the largest fully steerable, single-dish radio telescope in the world — has advanced astronomy in countless ways, studying the origins and evolution of the universe and even searching for signs of intelligent alien life. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/PF7240_2018_h.jpg?VersionId=SqFhW7sBb35.2KthuPj2K32yVfbd7oeH&itok=uTt2kRBS) IceCube Neutrino ObservatoryNSF's IceCube Neutrino Observatory is an enormous and unusual telescope: a grid of thousands of sensors embedded in a cubic kilometer of ice deep in the Antarctic ice sheet that allows it to detect tiny, elusive neutrinos — the least understood particles in the Standard Model of particle physics. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/PF2400_IODP_h.jpg?VersionId=IQsefjO_vqjBcaet74xbaNdCYtc3YKKI&itok=sp6lUM4P) International Ocean Discovery ProgramIODP is an international partnership of scientists, research institutions and funding organizations that explores the Earth's ocean basins. NSF provides support for the ocean-drilling research vessel JOIDES Resolution , conducting sea-floor drilling around the world to study Earth's oceans and paleoclimate. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/201902-108_13.jpg?VersionId=yGs4EXLYItBmRM2s8uFccDdn9GVMjWWk&itok=HGN32dUS) Large Hadron ColliderNSF supports two particle physics detectors — ATLAS and CMS — at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed, making it the premier facility in the world for research in elementary particle physics. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/LIGO_green_h.jpg?VersionId=HqT7qimyv.W0v8bftrvSszFmpH14WoAD&itok=gRbKC6mP) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave ObservatoryLIGO is the most sophisticated detector of its kind ever created. In 2015, mere days after its advanced instruments were switched on, LIGO detected gravitational waves for the first time, confirming a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/NCAR%20Mesa%20Laboratory.jpg?VersionId=0RIY8ocLolfIOQWK9yKSkB.bn_h0Qias&itok=C6k6C2AV) National Center for Atmospheric ResearchNCAR provides world-class research programs, services and facilities that support research in atmospheric and geospace science, environmental sciences and geosciences. NCAR's facilities include the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, two research aircraft, a transportable ground-based radar system, and a suite of sophisticated weather and climate models. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/Ordway-Swisher_NEON_site_010.jpg?VersionId=x8IZ48m.EP0TTmUzwt1Yhich7NLK5Z3y&itok=d_WkJwTA) National Ecological Observatory NetworkNEON is a continental-scale ecological observatory featuring cutting-edge sensor networks, instrumentation, observational sampling, natural history archive facilities and remote sensing. NEON enables research on the impacts of climate and land-use change, water use, and invasive species on the nation’s living ecosystems. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/magnetic_field_laboratory_signage.jpg?VersionId=btGrpVrMZQ3djMJKzxDSXWwiP6vJEkc5&itok=NvyQkd4i) National High Magnetic Field LaboratoryMagLab is the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world, used by thousands of scientists to probe fundamental questions about materials, energy, life and the environment. It is an international leader in magnet design, development and construction, including the development of new superconducting materials. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/potw1108a.jpg?VersionId=SdnwJ96_uXfX8IUC1LDnNKWdXqd06W9P&itok=iEgIksaX) NSF's National Radio Astronomy ObservatoryNSF's National Radio Astronomy Observatory designs, builds and operates state-of-the-art radio telescopes used by scientists from around the world. Its facilities include: - Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
- Central Development Laboratory
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![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/NSO_DKIST_poster_a.jpg?VersionId=S1uZx5otAU_hQBEwFBwe0SOQ27jGlWY8&itok=zikG6TBV) NSF's National Solar ObservatoryNSO advances understanding of the sun — as a star, the heart of the solar system and the biggest external influence for life on Earth. It operates the new Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope: the largest, most powerful, solar telescope on Earth, which recently provided the most detailed images of the solar surface ever recorded. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/iotw2207a.jpg?VersionId=b0TTV1jBhEinNqM._TyBPml3jB.qXA2b&itok=uxGqsUxt) NSF's NOIRLabNSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory is the nexus for U.S. ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. Its observatories include: - Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
International Gemini Observatory Kitt Peak National Observatory Vera C. Rubin Observatory ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/Coastal%20Endurance%20Surface%20Buoy%20Deployment.JPG?VersionId=T52dxFVczrRWTJDocGgS9e7J8patVh.1&itok=XJTUJGnq) Ocean Observatories InitiativeThe Ocean Observatories Initiative features a network of instruments, undersea cables and moorings that span the Western Hemisphere. The network supports research on the physical, chemical, geological and biological processes occurring in coastal and regional areas across the globe. ![in research facility in research facility](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/cta_image/s3/2023-04/PF5040_image1_h.jpg?VersionId=UAZeKTCafWhxpnbf3uaQ8wE4ej4jinBx&itok=Tx-e9mB-) Seismological Facility for the Advancement of GeoscienceSAGE is a distributed national facility that develops and supports instrumentation for the earth sciences, earthquake research, global real-time earthquake monitoring, and nuclear test ban verification. ![in research facility Our focus areas](https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/styles/medium_cropped/s3/2023-04/Spotlight_white.png?VersionId=X6IGCzJGwSdT807UwiJluuktUnItOlKH&itok=_20jubpk) Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick![in research facility Image of Ebola and SARS-CoV-2](https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files/styles/image_style_landscape_md/public/IRF%20EBOV%20SARS%20images.jpg?itok=l2MeaJK9) Research scientists at the IRF-Frederick work with a number of viruses: An electron micrograph of Ebola virus (virus green, cell purple) is in the upper left and SARS-CoV-2 (virus orange, cell blue) is in the lower right. The Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick) serves as a collaborative resource that facilitates multidisciplinary research to understand, treat, prevent, and eradicate diseases caused by novel, emerging, and highly virulent viruses. The IRF-Frederick is part of the NIAID’s Division of Clinical Research (DCR) within NIH. The IRF-Frederick collaborates with internal (NIAID) and extramural investigators to conduct research on viruses, such as those causing high-consequence disease (e.g., Ebola virus and SARS-CoV-2) and those included on the NIAID Priority Pathogens list . Additional resources in a dedicated biosafety level 2/3 (BSL-2/3) imaging facility study simian/simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SIV/SHIV). The IRF-Frederick has the capability to conduct BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4 research. It is one of the few facilities in the world able to perform medical imaging to evaluate animals in BSL-4 containment. In addition to animal models of disease, the IRF-Frederick uses innovative approaches—including high-throughput drug screening, targeted genomic sequencing, custom immunological and serological analyses, and organ-chip model development—to examine pathogenesis of viral pathogens. Learn how to work with the IRF-Frederick. Read more about the IRF-Frederick . Main Areas of Focus- Facilitating the development of effective countermeasures to mitigate major public-health events related to emerging or reemerging infectious diseases or biological weapons attacks
- Advancing medical diagnostics and cutting-edge technologies for high-consequence pathogens
- Using imaging technologies to understand infectious disease pathogenesis and to assist in the rational design of medical countermeasures and therapeutic strategies
- Supporting clinical trials and research studies that lead to improved patient outcomes
- Building local, national, and international capacity to respond to diseases caused by NIAID Priority Pathogens and other emerging viral pathogens
Resources for ResearchersThe IRF-Frederick has the following capabilities and collaborative research support opportunities available to internal (NIAID) and extramural researchers. Contact information is included, so researchers can reach out to someone to guide them through the process. - Aerobiology
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Perform a keyword search of opportunities offered by the IRF-Frederick . ![in research facility Home](https://wbdg.org/sites/default/files/WBDG_logo_hm.png) - Design Objectives
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Research Facilities by the WBDG Subcommittee Within This PageBuilding attributes, classification, additional resources. As symbols of the Nation's technological progress, research facilities are essential to the discoveries and breakthroughs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Thousands of public and private sector scientists and engineers from industries such as pharmaceutical, biomedical, manufacturing, and biotechnology use all types of laboratories and instruments to advance the frontiers of knowledge. At times, an entire facility may be built to support the specialized instruments required for research, including accelerators, light sources, research reactors, neutron beam facilities, plasma, fusion science facilities, genome centers, advanced computational centers, wind tunnels, model testing facilities, hot cells, and launch facilities. There are many kinds of research facilities. Within the WBDG they are divided into two major groups: Animal Research Facilities and Research Laboratories. Research Laboratories are further categorized by type (e.g., wet labs and dry labs), and by sectors (e.g., academic, corporate, and government labs). Many existing research facilities, especially those in government agencies and universities, are at an age when renovations are needed to support the state-of-the-art research required to be at the cutting edge of science and technology. While this section of the WBDG provides information on the design and construction of new research facilities, the principles covered can be applied to renovation projects as well. ![in research facility Exterior William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)](https://wbdg.org/images/research_facilities_01.jpg) Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) , at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has unique and state-of-the-art research resources. Richland, WA. Example Design and Construction CriteriaFor GSA, the unit costs for this building type are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table . This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners. Research facilities present a unique challenge to designers with their inherent complexity of systems, health and safety requirements, long-term flexibility and adaptability needs, energy use intensity, and environmental impacts. There are many different types of research facilities. Within the WBDG they are divided into two major groups, which are then further categorized by type and by sector: Animal Research Facilities , also known as vivariums, are specially designed building types that accommodate exquisitely controlled environments for the care and maintenance of experimental animals. Research Laboratories are complex, technically sophisticated, and mechanically intensive structures that are expensive to build and to maintain. Therefore, the design, construction, and renovation of such facilities are a major challenge for all involved. - Type: Wet ; Dry
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![in research facility Aerial photo for The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md.](https://wbdg.org/images/research_facilities_02.jpg) The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, provides a crucial link in rapidly moving research findings from the laboratory to mainstream medical practice. A new model of laboratory design is emerging, one that creates lab environments that are responsive to present needs and capable of accommodating future demands. Several key needs are driving the development of a new model. See WBDG Trends in Lab Design for a complete overview. Federal Agencies- For examples of facilities to support instruments of science, see DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory
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- National Institutes of Health, Office of Research Facilities, Development and Operations developed the NIH Design Requirements Manual to provide standards to assist planners, architects, and engineers in designing biomedical and animal research facilities for the NIH.
Organizations/Associations- A Design Guide for Energy-Efficient Research Laboratories —A reference that helps facility owners, managers, and designers apply energy-efficiency features in laboratories.
- Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC) —The Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria is a rating system specifically designed for laboratory facilities. It builds on the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED® Green Building Rating System .
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- U.S. Green Building Council's LEED® —Because research facilities present a unique challenge for energy efficiency and sustainable design, the USGBC formed the LEED-AGL Committee to develop a guide that helps project teams apply LEED credits in the design and construction of laboratory facilities.
Publications- ASHRAE 110 Method of Testing Performance of Laboratory Fume Hoods
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- Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 5th Edition by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 2009.
- Building Type Basics for Research Laboratories , 2nd Edition by Daniel Watch. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008. ISBN# 978-0-470-16333-7.
- Guidelines for Planning and Design of Biomedical Research Laboratory Facilities by The American Institute of Architects, Center for Advanced Technology Facilities Design. Washington, D.C.: The American Institute of Architects, 1999.
- R&D Magazine —Provides information on a variety of topics related to laboratories. The R&D Lab of the Year award is presented annually to outstanding laboratory facilities throughout the United States.
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- GSA Sustainable Facilities Tool (SFTool) —SFTool's immersive virtual environment addresses all your sustainability planning, designing and procurement needs.
WBDG Participating Agencies![Department of Defense in research facility](https://wbdg.org/images/logo_dod_sm.png) National Institute of Building Sciences Innovative Solutions for the Built Environment 1090 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20005-4950 | (202) 289-7800 © 2024 National Institute of Building Sciences. All rights reserved. Disclaimer Research Centers and InstitutesThe University of Washington is known for its strategic, multidisciplinary research. Within our extensive network of Centers and Institutes, UW researchers, staff, and students work across disciplines to extend the boundaries of knowledge. Contact: Melissa Cox, [email protected] Find a Center or InstituteInterested in learning more about focused work in a specific area or finding a collaborator to support your efforts? Search the: List of UW Research Centers and Institutes Policy, Regulation, and Guidance- Guidelines for Establishing a Center/Institute
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© 2024 University of Washington | Seattle, WA To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories . - The Big Story
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Inside the Deepest Underground Lab in the USReleased on 06/09/2022 [Narrator] This is the Sanford Underground Research Facility, the deepest underground lab in the United States. [gate clattering open] It's a converted mine where more than 10 experiments are being conducted, experiments that can only take place far beneath the surface of the earth. We will tour three different labs where scientists are studying dark matter, the nature of neutrinos, and geothermal energy. Finally, we'll look at the construction of one of the largest particle physics experiments in the world. This is Wired Field Trip. [uptempo music] [fan whirring] 4,850 feet below the surface researchers make their way to their experiments every morning. [elevator shaft clacking] On the deepest level, you might think that scientists are studying the Earth's core, but instead, these physicists need nearly a mile of rock to shield their experiments from the sun and space. [dark beats] First up, the LUX-Zeplin experiment, a dark matter detector known as LZ. LZ is a dark matter experiment trying to directly detect the dark matter particles that we think are flying through the earth all the time. [Narrator] So, what exactly is dark matter? We think we know as a species how much stuff there is in our universe but it turns out that the stuff that we understand, the stuff that makes us up, me up, the things that you see around me, is only about 5% of that total. So, 95% of the universe's content is a mystery to humanity. [Narrator] Dark matter is often referred to as the invisible glue that holds everything together. Physicists and astronomers have been hunting it for decades, all the way up to Hugh. Here's how the dark matter detector works. So there are many, many layers to LZ. You start at the center with a large bucket of liquid xenon. Xenon is the heart of our experiment, it's the target material. It's what we hope the dark matter is gonna interact with. [Narrator] This is a cross section of the experiment. In the center is the element xenon in liquid form. The xenon is housed in a chamber that includes many layers, not only various elements like titanium and gadolinium but a huge water tank. And of course, 4,850 feet of rock. So there are charge particles constantly hitting our atmosphere. Some come from our galaxy, some come from outside of our galaxy. Some we don't know where they come from. But they're hitting our atmosphere and they make showers and showers of particles. Those things will light up our detector constantly. If you try to turn LZ on on the surface, it would light up like a Christmas tree and you wouldn't be able to see anything at all. In our depth, the rate of those rays is way knocked down so that we can actually run our experiment. [Narrator] The detector also includes photo multiplier tubes to detect light signals that could show the presence of dark matter. Effectively, what we hope is will happen is that dark matter will hit a xenon nucleus, it'll create a little flash of light, a little flash of charge and we'll collect those things to see the signal. [Narrator] And all of that is housed in this whole facility. Hugh is going to walk us through what goes into maintaining the detector. So behind me at the moment is part of our cryogenic system. To be liquid, xenon has to be held at a hundred degrees below zero Celsius or 165 Kelvin. So this steel dewar behind us is filled with liquid nitrogen. And it is connected to a couple of tubes that run down into the detector. [poppy beats] So here we have the wall of the LZ water tank. It was built underground, as you can see, welded from these sections. So this is filled with something like 70 gallons of water. So if I open this, 70,000 gallons of water would rush out and drown us all. So in front of us here, we have what we call the xenon tower, which is another part of the cryogenics. If you see these sort of big boa, flexible lines, there's nitrogen running through those lines to come down to the xenon tower where we have a few heat exchangers that cools liquid xenon. The detector itself has 10 tons of xenon. [Narrator] That's about a quarter of the world's yearly xenon production. And one of the reasons we really like xenon for this experiment is that it is very dense as a liquid. It's something like three kilograms per liter. So, that is denser than aluminum. So, if you put an aluminum block in our detector, it would float. [Narrator] Inside the detector is one of the most radio quiet places on earth. They've reduced the amount of radiation down to almost nothing. And there's so much more that goes into it. So these are our electronics racks. Here's our spare parts. A neutron generators. Cryo cooler. So in this room we have our xenon compressors. So there's xenon flowing through these gas lines, constantly being pumped to purify the detector. [Narrator] The majority of this experiment is the researchers collecting data and waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen. So, what happens if they discover dark matter? So, dark matter right now is probably one of the biggest if not the biggest mysteries in particle physics. So, it would be a huge, huge deal if we discovered it and it would explain this huge chunk of our universe that is missing and would open up a whole new avenue of research. But there is a chance that the dark matter properties are so weak or so different from what we're looking for, that we will never see it. And it's quite possible that when we end our dark matter detection program we will never have found the actual particle. So that's a scary proposition, but it's true. [Narrator] Before LZ, there was a smaller detector. After LZ, there could be a bigger detector. The more they continue hunting, the more they can rule out what dark matter is, or isn't. Nearly a mile underground, possibly the most concentration of xenon in the universe, they continue to wait until a small signal changes our understanding of where we came from. This is only the first experiment we're looking at today. Let's go check out another called the Majorana Demonstrator. This is particle physicist, Ralph Massarczyk. So here we are a mile underground studying the nature of neutrinos. The Majorana demonstrator is looking for a concept known as neutrinoless double beta decay. Neutrinoless double beta decay is a very, very rare decay that can happen only in a handful of isotopes. So, if some of these particles vanished during the decay, it would give us a hint of how the universe could be created. [Narrator] The theory that Ralph's team is working on is that neutrinos, the subatomic particle smaller than electrons, are their own antiparticle. In order to study this theory, the demonstrator is even more sensitive than the LZ dark matter detector. We have to enter a clean room. The principle is the same as the LZ shield layers; reduce background radiation. Even human bodies give off radiation. That's why the researchers are decked out in personal protective equipment, including our crew. Here we are at the Majorana clean room, and we are gonna look at the detector today and see how it's made. [Narrator] In the LZ experiment, the element the physicists were hoping to see reactions in was xenon. In Majorana, it's the isotope germanium. There's only a handful of isotopes which can do double beta decay. Germanium was one of them. We often compare finding double beta decay to listen to like a single conversation in a full stadium. Maybe you go to a Beyonce concert and it's loud and you wanna talk to your neighbor and he whispers. That's what you're trying to achieve. So every kind of radiation is a background, is a noise, which you constantly try to overcome. The Majorana experiment is shielded against natural radiation with several layers of material. Starts on the outside with roughly 12 inches of poly, then a very heavy lead shield. So you see the size of a lead break is roughly this times four times eight inches. And there's a few thousands of them installed in the shield. And then, to the core of the experiment where we have our electroform copper which is the cleanest copper in the world, on which is grown underground here. And inside this shield we have this, what we call detector modules. So, you see this copper vessel and inside the vessel are our germanium detectors where we try to look for double beta decay. A germanium detector is roughly the size of a hockey puck. And they're arranged here in an area of detectors. The signals go along this cross arm through all the shield to this readout electronics, which are located here behind the shield. This whole assembly weighs several tons. So what we do is we place everything on this, on ball bearings down here, and very slowly push it inside. It has to be done very slowly because there's a lot of fragile electronics and you don't want it to vibrate or to shake or to break. [Narrator] In order to assemble the detector, the researchers have to work in these sealed boxes that also reduce background radiation. So this is our glove box where we actually assemble the individual detector units, build bigger assembly of strings of detectors. And then also assemble the whole module. Inside the glove box, you see all the individual copper pieces. If you look at these pieces, it can be as small as very tiny nuts, but these copper pieces also all go all the way up to the several hundred pounds heavy shield plates which you saw before in the outer shield. So, at the end, you are actually gonna wear four layers of gloves. The two gloves we are already wearing, the rubber gloves and an innermost layer for cleanliness. And now, you can imagine you have to pick up very tiny pieces like these ones. This is roughly the size of a germanium detector and you have to assemble it. A simple test, like just putting a nut on a bolt, becomes complicated as soon as you have several layers of glove on. [Narrator] What else is a part of this experiment? Here, you see the readout electronics of the germanium detectors. This is a hovercraft. This is the copper baths. [Narrator] One of the more unique elements of the Majorana demonstrator is that researchers are growing copper. It starts with this very pure copper nuggets. And they're put into a bath with acid where, through an electric field, they're very slowly only the copper drifts to this bigger mandrels. [Narrator] When the copper is ready, the scientists move it into the machine room to make parts out of it. Once they come off, they look like this. So you have this massive copper pieces which are then get flattened out. And the copper pieces end up like this. [Narrator] All of this chemistry, engineering and physics goes into discovering the nature of neutrinos. So what happens if they find what they're looking for? If we're able to show that neutrinos are their own antiparticles, it would show that the standard model as it exists is not complete. In each process, the same amount of, if matter goes in, matter should come out. If this is not suddenly not the case anymore, you open up a whole can of worms. [laughing] [Narrator] These physicists are searching for invisible particles that our entire understanding of science can't account for. Do you believe in magic at all? No. [laughing] I don't believe in magic in the sense of there's a magician who can make things disappear, but the way everything fits together, the way that particles drift in an electric field, the way a germanium detector works is its own little magic. Physics itself has its own magic. I'm lucky enough that I'm allowed to work in what I love. So, I love it. Gonna be a lifelong pursuit for me. I hope. [laughing] [Narrator] The researchers are entering the next phase of the Majorana Demonstrator Project which will go on for another couple of years. Let's get out of the 4850 and go to another level. [indistinct talking] Welcome to the 4,100 where we're studying geothermal energy. [Narrator] Hunter and Paul are part of one of the biggest geothermal research projects in the country. Geothermal's been around for a long time. And people have learned over the last few hundred years that they could use the earth to both heat and cool their house. And they did this through technology called geothermal heat pumps. This research focuses on a different kind of geothermal energy, and that is called EGS, or enhanced geothermal systems. [Narrator] Basically, not every country can be like Iceland where there's a high concentration of volcanoes. The next generation of geothermal research is exploring the technology of hydraulic fracturing. So the idea for EGS is quite simple, actually. You drill two wells side by side. You create a fracture that connects these two wells and then you can circulate water from the surface down the borehole, through the fracture and produce steam or hot fluid out of the other borehole. And that is where the energy comes from. Now, just imagine you set those boreholes up like a radiator and you put fractures one right after the other. Now you have something that could produce power for tens of millions of people. [Narrator] EGS CoLab is studying how the earth interacts with fluids underground. We drilled nine boreholes with five of them targeted for stimulation and production, basically. [Narrator] The goal of stimulation holes is to stress test rocks to gather as much data as possible. These are the five boreholes in which the straddle packers will be deployed in. Packers are used in hydraulic fracturing, both in experiments and also in industry. This is a packer element and this is a packer element. You can think of these as Kevlar balloons. And so, what we do is we inflate these with water. They seal the borehole, and then if we're pumping water in, it comes out of this little hole and it fills up the volume in the borehole between these two balloons. That will generate a fracture, or it will open a fracture if the fracture already exists. [Narrator] Today, they are sending a camera down the borehole to understand it more. So what we're pushing in here is called an optical televiewer. And what that is is a camera at the end of the probe that's basically taking 360 degree pictures of the borehole. And what we're seeing on this screen right now is a live image of the televiewer. You're getting a picture of what the core left behind the open borehole and the rock formation. [Narrator] Let's walk down the cavern and take a look at the rock. These are core that were extracted during the drilling of these boreholes. This is the Yates amphibolite, basically a very dense crystal and metamorphic rock. You're talking a billion year old plus rock. So, this is like the foundations of life on earth and so forth. This is a neat piece. So, here we are catching the Yates amphibolite here, but also a quartz vein on this side. So, a pretty neat 360 degree view of an intersection with different types of rock. [Narrator] What else is part of the experiment? This is a micro seismic and source seismic acquisition system. These are fiber enclosures. This is our RO unit. Chiller unit. Triplex pump. This is the DAQ box. There are the brains of the system. This is an alcove. It's also where our coffee maker is because we're super sophisticated [Narrator] EGS CoLab's data aims to be proving ground for geothermal energy around the country. Before we leave today, let's quickly go back to the 4,850 level and check out what's down this cavern. [fans whirring] Down here in the darkness, engineers are building the single largest physics experiment Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a massive series of detectors a mile underground here at the Sanford Lab that's going to detect neutrinos that are generated at the Firmilab in Batavia, Illinois. And so, those neutrinos will pass directly through the earth to here. And we'll be able to see how neutrinos oscillate over that distance. The detectors that we're building are going to hold 17,000 tons of liquid argon each. And to give you an idea of the scale of what that is, that's 63 feet across, 63 feet tall, and about 220 feet overall length per detector. And we've planned for four of these detectors. So, you can picture the caverns that have to be built to house those large detectors. So, when the neutrino reacts, it's going to create a flash of light, if you will. And by creating this drift inside of the argon, we can actually move that flash in a way that we can observe it. So, overall construction of the LBNF and DUNE Project will take over 10 years. Building underground is like building a ship in a bottle. We have to disassemble everything into small enough pieces to take it down underground. And when we get underground, we have to reassemble it in these large caverns, which are like the bottle. Everything we do is going a mile down a shaft and it's gotta fit inside that shaft. There's no two ways around it. We're not gonna build a larger shaft. So everything has to consider that as we're designing and building this facility [Narrator] Even though these mine shafts are around 90 years old, they are still state of the art engineering. The hoists at this facility are very unique. In fact, there's four of them in the world that are like this, and they're incredibly well designed. They're a cylindrical conical drum. And so that conical section allows it to automatically slow down without changing the motor speed at all. As you go to the smaller diameter, you're getting less distance per rotation and that helps you with the torque that's necessary to lift the conveyances. Everything about this project is unprecedented. The size of the caverns that are be being built a mile underground; unprecedented. The size of the detectors; unprecedented. The size of the collaboration; not quite unprecedented, but there's only about three that have ever happened that are of this magnitude. The type of science we're doing, and the type of science that this facility in general is doing is really unprecedented, and is the type of things that my grandkids will read about in textbooks and be able to say, My granddad worked on that. This is the experiment that the particle physics community is really focused on as their top priority. [Narrator] There are so many other experiments going on at the Stanford Underground Lab that we don't have time for. On this level, biology experiments are looking at extremophiles. On this level, equipment testing for various industries in NASA. Now, we have to go above the surface. And that's our Wired Field Trip. See you next time. [inspiring music] ![in research facility Inside the Deepest Underground Lab in the US](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1654781605/wired_inside-the-deepest-underground-lab-in-the-us.jpg) Inside the Lab That Starts Fires For Science![in research facility Egyptologist Answers Ancient Egypt Questions From Twitter](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1710447028/wired_tech-support-egyptologist-answers-ancient-egypt-questions-from-twitter.jpg) Egyptologist Answers Ancient Egypt Questions From Twitter![in research facility Iggy Azalea Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1720191877/wired_google-autocomplete-inverviews-iggy-azalea-answers-the-web-most-searched-questions.jpg) Iggy Azalea Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions![in research facility What Speakers That Cost $370,000 Sound Like](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1720532806/wired_wired-desired-speakers.jpg) What Speakers That Cost $370,000 Sound Like![in research facility Professor Answers Ancient Greece Questions From Twitter](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1721765974/wired_tech-support-professor-answers-ancient-greece-questions-from-twitter.jpg) Professor Answers Ancient Greece Questions From Twitter![in research facility Jeremy Renner Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1721918629/wired_google-autocomplete-inverviews-jeremy-renner-answers-the-webs-most-searched-questions.jpg) Jeremy Renner Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions![in research facility David Cross Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1722520763/wired_google-autocomplete-inverviews-david-cross-answers-the-webs-most-searched-questions.jpg) David Cross Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions![in research facility Etiquette Expert Answers Etiquette Questions From Twitter](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1722872010/wired_tech-support-etiquette-expert-answers-etiquette-questions-from-twitter.jpg) Etiquette Expert Answers Etiquette Questions From Twitter![in research facility 'Pod Save America' Hosts Answer Democracy Questions From Twitter](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_wired.png%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_face%2Ch_98%2Cq_80%2Cw_175/v1723483748/wired_tech-support-pod-save-america-hosts-answer-democracy-questions-from-twitter.jpg) 'Pod Save America' Hosts Answer Democracy Questions From TwitterTrending video. ![in research facility Valkyrae Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_image.jpg%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_center%2Ch_360%2Cq_80%2Cw_640/v1723652593/wired_google-autocomplete-inverviews-valkraye-answers-the-webs-most-searched-questions.jpg) Valkyrae Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions![in research facility Urban Designer Answers City Planning Questions From Twitter](https://dwgyu36up6iuz.cloudfront.net/heru80fdn/image/upload/c_fill%2Cd_placeholder_image.jpg%2Cfl_progressive%2Cg_center%2Ch_360%2Cq_80%2Cw_640/v1724253796/wired_tech-support-former-nyc-urban-designer-answers-city-planning-questions-from-twitter.jpg) Urban Designer Answers City Planning Questions From TwitterResearch Centers and InstitutesOne of New York University's strengths is its vast array of institutes and centers that are not only an important part of the academic setting of the University, but are also a vital part of its cultural setting. From leading international centers for research and education, to one of the most technologically advanced lecture halls and screening facilities in New York City, the varied institutes and centers at NYU serve as critical points of convergence for the University experience. Research at our SchoolsJump to a list of research pages at individual schools. A-Z ListingFaculty Research in SchoolsThe heart of academic and research enterprise are the schools. For more information regarding research at an individual school, follow the links below. - Arts and Science
- College of Dentistry
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences - Math
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences - Computer Science
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences - Atmosphere Ocean Science
- Institute of Fine Arts
- Leonard N. Stern School of Business
- Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
- Rory Meyers College of Nursing
- School of Professional Studies
- School of Law
- School of Medicine
- Silver School of Social Work
- Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
- Tandon School of Engineering
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Secondary LogoJournal logo. Colleague's E-mail is Invalid Your message has been successfully sent to your colleague. Save my selection The Benefits and Challenges of Research Centers and Institutes in Academic Medicine: Findings from Six Universities and Their Medical SchoolsMallon, William T. EdD Dr. Mallon is assistant vice president and director of organization and management studies, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Mallon, Association of American Medical Colleges, 2450 N St NW, Washington, DC 20037-1127; telephone: (202) 828-0424; e-mail: ( [email protected] ). Purpose To understand the benefits and challenges of using centers and institutes in the academic research enterprise, and to explore institutional strategies that capitalize on the strengths and ameliorate the weaknesses of the center/institute structure. Method Using a qualitative research design, the author and associates interviewed over 150 faculty members and administrators at six medical schools and their parent universities in 2004. Interview data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. This methodology generated rich descriptions and explanations of the six institutions, which can produce extrapolations to, but not necessarily findings that are generalizable to, other institutions and settings. Results Centers and institutes offer a number of benefits to academic institutions. Centers can aid in faculty recruitment and retention, facilitate collaboration in research, secure research resources, offer a sense of community and promote continued learning, afford organizational flexibility, and focus on societal problems and raise funds. Despite their many benefits, centers can also create tensions and present management challenges to institutional leaders. Centers can compete with departments over resources, complicate faculty recruitment, contribute to a fragmented mission, resist effective evaluation, pose governance problems, and impede junior faculty development. Conclusions Institutional leaders might capitalize on the strengths of centers through three strategies: (1) reward leaders who embrace a collaborative point of view and develop a culture that frowns upon empire building; (2) distinguish among the many entities that share the “center” or “institute” labels; and (3) acknowledge that departments must maintain their place in the organizational milieu. Full Text Access for Subscribers:Individual subscribers. ![in research facility in research facility](https://journals.lww.com/_layouts/1033/IMAGES/OAKS.Journals/ovid-logo.png) Institutional UsersNot a subscriber. You can read the full text of this article if you: - + Favorites
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![in research facility ANA Design Studio Pvt. Ltd.](https://ana-design.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ANA-Logo120X240px-150x75.png) How do you design and build a successful research facility?Sufficient accommodation. Optimized layouts with defined spaces for storage, workspaces, services, meetings, casual discussions, training sessions and congregations make up for an efficient research facility that fosters an environment of growth and innovation. This happens by a thorough understanding of the space requirements of the numerous processes and activities that happen in a research laboratory. If the appropriate spaces and their adjacencies are not considered well before design and construction, it can pose a challenge to the facility at later stages. For instance, if sufficient storage is not provided, the redundant lab equipment will overflow on the workspaces, reducing their efficiency. Adaptability & FlexibilityAs a research project grows, there is a need to accommodate the increase in lab personnel, lab equipment and research departments. Sometimes the type of research in a department can change which leads to requirement of different equipment and researchers. So, design and engineering of the facility should be performed with flexibility as one of the primary design factors. Flexibility also allows the users to transform their environment as per the needs of their individual and collective activities. For instance, laboratories with movable furniture can easily be transformed into lecture halls or training centers. Multi-functional spaces are the future of efficient space designs. Complex RequirementsResearch facilities, unlike commercial real estate, brings forth many complex functional requirements that must cater to the complexities involved in the day to day lives of researchers. Right from ensuring safety and security from hazardous chemicals, to ensuring optimum indoor environment, the complex design challenges need to be resolved in the most effective manner. We’re dealing with sensitive equipment and tools, and substances that need to be climate controlled. Also researchers that need to conduct their intensive studies and create innovative solutions in an environment that offers them comfort, collaboration, and an assurance of safety. Energy Efficiency & ManagementThe day to day operations happening at a research facility can lead to significant energy consumption and resource wastage. This makes them vulnerable to create a negative environmental impact. In order to make such facilities more energy efficient, several passive and active sustainable strategies can be adopted for the building’s design and engineering. Spaces can be planned in response to the site’s local conditions. Building materials and systems need to be energy efficient. Alternate renewable energy resources need to be introduced. Proper waste management systems must be employed. Building energy management systems (BEMS) can be deployed to monitor and control the energy consumption through data. Resilience to AccidentsIn places where researchers are constantly working with harmful chemicals and substances or sensitive equipment, chances of accidents are high. Improper design of these facilities can lead to an increase in such accidents. It can put precious human resources in the ways of harm and cause severe damage, all because of inefficient design and engineering of the built environment. While the researchers are taking a risk when working with hazardous substances, we must ensure their safety at all times. With proper ventilation, fire-safety, monitoring systems, and efficient circulation, users can focus on their research instead of worrying about hazards. IoT integration of services also prevents accidents. Environment of Mutual GrowthResearch facilities need to be places for collective growth of all involved researchers. Gone are the days when individual expertise and individual skills were more favored for completing a job. Today, with the rise of complexities, research organisations have realised the significance of collective efforts over individual ones. We need the research facilities to be designed with more and more spaces for casual chances encounters, interactions, team gatherings, training sessions, and flexible spaces for collective working. This leads to an empowering environment where the juniors learn from their seniors through workplace osmosis, and team members learn from each other’s knowledge. Optimum Indoor Climate ControlThe indoor environment of research laboratories is constantly affected by hazardous fumes and viral & bacterial pathogens. Being surrounded by them for a prolonged period of time can be harmful to the health of researchers. Inefficient extraction of fumes from the enclosed laboratory spaces can lead to chronic diseases. That’s why we need to focus on efficient smoke and fume extraction through the design and engineering of ventilation systems. Similarly, lab environments require specific indoor temperatures, not only for the thermal comfort of researchers, but also for requirements of certain chemicals and equipment. Building Management Systems can be beneficial to ensure optimum indoor climate control. ![in research facility](https://ana-design.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1-1024x1024.jpg) 2 thoughts on “How do you design and build a successful research facility?”![in research facility ' src=](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/98a4989adce18f789a3bc380b99e46e9?s=50&d=mm&r=g) I want to modify my lab in order to create a fantastic research facility for my company. The way you described optimum floor plans with designated areas for storage, workplaces, services, meetings, informal conversations, and training sessions is fantastic. I’ll seek out experts to assist me in designing the layout of my laboratory. ![in research facility ' src=](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8b591f1c665046265f3cc2f923e9b143?s=50&d=mm&r=g) Request a quote for the design of an engineering research center for the university. Thanks Leave a Comment Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. News CenterNorthwestern receives $55 million to advance health research. ![in research facility](https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/daquila-lab-1024x683.jpg) The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has received $55 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to accelerate development, evaluation and implementation of improved healthcare interventions. The seven-year award is the largest active research grant at Northwestern and extends a legacy of NIH funding that began when the institute launched in 2008. “Clinical and translational research does not happen in a bubble, it requires dedicated investigators and members of the public to advance human health,” said Richard D’Aquila, MD , the Howard Taylor Ricketts, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research. “With generous support from the NIH and Northwestern, we will continue to work alongside our exceptional coalition of community and health system partners to help build a better framework for innovating and implementing discoveries in ever more inclusive ways.” ![in research facility](https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/becker-headshot-1024x683.jpg) Co-led by principal investigators D’Aquila; Sara Becker, PhD , the Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , and Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc , chief and Magerstadt Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine, the Institute maintains its place as an anchor for Northwestern’s research enterprise. “The collection of extraordinary faculty and staff who will manage this iteration of NUCATS are a testament to the transformational mindsets held by the institute’s leadership,” said Eric G. Neilson, MD , vice president for Medical Affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean. “This funding allows us to further advance our mission of improving human health by investigating the mechanisms that drive the translation of discoveries toward real-world treatments.” Awarded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science, the grant will fund activities that cultivate a culture of inclusive excellence to better capitalize on the full range of existing talent while enabling effective translation of discoveries for diverse populations. The Institute is also positioned to infuse implementation science methods into work across the translational continuum to improve public health and meet the needs of all. ![in research facility](https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Yancy-1024x683.jpg) “Implementation science can help us to accelerate and catalyze the uptake of evidence-based practice into routine clinical care,” said Becker, also director of Northwestern’s Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CTSA). “Northwestern is a national leader in this space. The NUCATS Institute will become a model CTSA hub that advances inclusive, innovative and implementable solutions to the evolving challenges that impede scalable public health progress.” Yancy’s research in cardiology and health disparities addresses optimal treatment of heart failure. A seminal contribution was revealing that the predominant cause of heart failure among Black people is hypertension rather than the ischemic heart disease that is most often the putative cause in non-Black patients. His groundbreaking work informed how to optimize treatment strategies for Black patients including the first ever FDA-approved therapy for Black patients. “Diversity in the biomedical workforce is more than representativeness; it is rather about excellence, diverse ideas and unique strategies that will enrich our ability to provide care for the entire population,” said Yancy, who is also vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion. “By addressing inequities with intentionality, we are positioned to understand and then overcome persistent systemic limitations that hurt those underrepresented and underserved and in turn impair best health for everyone. We commit to responsibly and courageously leading the path to inclusive excellence and belongingness.” As one of more than 60 NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award-funded hubs, the NUCATS Institute is now charged with adding to generalizable knowledge about how to best accelerate new ideas and interventions into impact that improves health for all. The NIH calls this new charge conducting clinical and translational science, distinguishing it from an earlier charge to provide resources for all clinical and translational research. “A core principle of translational science is to understand common causes of inefficiency and failure in translational research projects. One of the additional areas we will focus on — in collaboration with Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office and other partners — is better helping academic innovators to move discoveries from the laboratory through clinical trials and toward commercialization,” D’Aquila said. Northwestern University and its affiliates the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and its Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute , Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Northwestern Medicine comprise the NUCATS Institute. Clinicians and investigators at each affiliate are Northwestern faculty members and the partnering entities share a jointly operated, markedly grown academic medical center campus where faculty and trainees’ education, care and research activities cultivate a learning health system. The affiliates also have broad regional networks of sites/providers, facilitating community outreach. The NUCATS Institute will continue to serve as the glue that collaboratively aligns translational research and advances translational science across the four hub components. The new CTSA activities are funded by NCATS grant UM1TR005121. Related PostsOncoprotein activity increases prostate cancer progression, older adults in illinois at increased risk for suicide, understanding structural drivers of hiv and substance use. Comments are closed. Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel. Cookie Acknowledgement This website uses cookies to collect information to improve your browsing experience. Please review our Privacy Statement for more information. ![in research facility Auburn Engineering Logo](https://eng.auburn.edu/images/branding/sgcoe-formal-h-fullcolor.png) Stormwater Research Facility to develop erosion and sediment control design guidelinesPublished: Aug 28, 2024 8:00 AM By Dustin Duncan Auburn University's Stormwater Research Facility (AU-SRF) has been tasked with creating design guidelines for erosion and sediment control practices used on highway construction sites to minimize stormwater pollution. Michael Perez , director of the AU-SRF and Brasfield & Gorrie associate professor in civil and environmental engineering, is the principal investigator (PI) on the three-year, $750,000 grant from the National Academy of Sciences’ National Cooperative Highway Research Program. He said the erosion and sediment control industry is currently driven by generally accepted but not scientifically evaluated design guidelines. The resiliency or the risk of failure of these practices are not defined clearly or difficult to quantify with current design methods. "That's the unique thing about our lab, — we're taking practices that have been used for a long time that nobody's had the opportunity to actually investigate through controlled research experiments," Perez said. "We're putting science behind it and trying to really understand how they perform, and also provide improved designs with consideration to resiliency and risk of failure." The project focuses both on design elements and installation techniques. For example, the guidelines developed by the AU-SRF could provide national guidance on how to design and install an effective silt fence, which is typically used on construction sites to control sediment from stormwater runoff. "These guidelines will consider best placement, site characteristics, topography, climate, the area around which runoff is anticipated, the types of soils in the region and anything that could impact their performance" Perez said. According to Perez, the AU-SRF will perform large-scale testing at its facility. Xing Fang , Arthur H. Feagin Chair Professor for water resources in civil and environmental engineering, is co-PI on the project, along with Wes Donald, research fellow in civil and environmental engineering. The University of Tennessee, Oklahoma State University, Fagan Consulting, LLC in Prattville and JEO Consulting Group are partnering with Auburn on this project. "We're thinking through and evaluating the science throughout the design steps and performing hydrologic analyses to see how practices are expected to perform," Fang said. "We plan to understand how the practices are expected to behave and how they fail." The plan at the end of the project is to develop a guidebook for designers developing plans for engineers and contractors. Perez said it should be something designers can take off the shelf and have the best practices available, ultimately leading to better protection of waterbodies and neighboring areas downstream of construction sites. "It will give the tools to know 'this is what I'm installing, and this is where I'm installing it, and the proper size for the practice to function as intended" Perez said. "The designers using these guidelines will know there's been thorough research behind it and can be confident knowing they are doing the job right." The AU-SRF is part of Auburn University's Highway Research Center (HRC). Anton Schindler, director of the HRC, said that the NCHRP is one of the most prestigious grants in the transportation industry. “Research teams from all across the country compete for NCHRP projects and only one team is selected by a panel of experts,” Schindler said. “Being awarded an NCHRP project is thus a career-defining achievement and indicates that this Auburn University team is considered to be among the nation’s best by their peers.” Michael Perez, director of the AU-SRF and Brasfield & Gorrie associate professor in civil and environmental engineering, is the principal investigator (PI) on the three-year, $750,000 grant from the National Academy of Sciences’ National Cooperative Highway Research Program. Featured Faculty![in research facility Michael Perez](https://eng.auburn.edu/images/programs/civil/headshots/perez-michael.jpg) Civil and Environmental Engineering Recent Headlines![in research facility Two researchers in lab coats and goggles work with outdoor scientific equipment near a modern building.](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Newscenter_Featured_1025x685px_XBD-202406-103-032.jpg) - Five Ways LiSA is Advancing Solar Fuels
- Alternative Energy
Artificial photosynthesis could one day harness energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water into liquid fuels to power your car, and enable a process for creating chemicals and fertilizers that is better for the environment. But scientists first need new techniques to efficiently convert sunlight into solar fuels and chemicals at scale, and store them for later use. Since its founding in 2020 , the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) – a Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy – has made advances in developing the science principles by which liquid fuels can be generated from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. “LiSA is bringing solar fuels closer to reality. In just five years our researchers have achieved major milestones in artificial photosynthesis.” – Joel Ager, senior scientist and LiSA program lead at Berkeley Lab Led by Caltech in close partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), LiSA brings together more than 100 scientists from national lab partners at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and university partners at UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and the University of Oregon. This multi-institutional collaboration is focused on accelerating advances in solar fuels research by combining computationally driven experimentation with real-time observations using ultrafast X-rays and other advanced imaging techniques. By facilitating a national network of leading research capabilities, advanced instruments, and cutting-edge user facilities that are unique to national labs and universities, LiSA is paving the way for a solar fuels future. “LiSA is bringing solar fuels closer to reality,” said Joel Ager, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division who manages the Northern California LiSA facility at Berkeley Lab. “In just five years our researchers have achieved major milestones in artificial photosynthesis, from new materials and devices that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into ethylene and other chemical fuels, to advances in computer modeling, data visualization, and X-ray imaging techniques that could make the conversion process more efficient and durable at the commercial scale.” Here are five potential breakthroughs LiSA research teams led by Berkeley Lab have achieved so far. ![in research facility A researcher wearing safety goggles and blue gloves works with intricate lab equipment, adjusting tubes and wires in a lab setting.](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/News_ImageComponent_XBD-202406-103-007.jpg) 1. Made solar energy available 24/7Photoelectrochemical devices use sunlight to trigger chemical reactions that convert CO 2 and water into liquid fuels. This artificial photosynthesis technology has the potential to revolutionize our energy infrastructure, but current photoelectrochemical techniques in CO 2 reduction are limited by sluggish chemical processes and high energy requirements. A project led by Peidong Yang, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, offers an alternative approach: A new system design that is far less energy-demanding than conventional systems. This new design enabled 24/7 operation over multiple days – and effectively eliminated sunlight intermittency issues – by using silicon nanowire components that can be illuminated by renewably powered and superefficient LEDs. 2. Modeled artificial photosynthesis at multiple scalesPhotoelectrochemical systems have the potential to produce hydrogen fuel and other liquid fuels through artificial photosynthesis, but manufacturing these fuels at scale will require improved efficiencies and product purity. In recent projects led by Adam Weber, senior scientist and head of the Energy Conversion Group in Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area, and Alexis Bell, faculty senior scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, researchers developed and ran models to simulate how molecules, atoms, and electrons move around inside and at the interface of a photoelectrochemical device. These simulations shed light on the importance of ion transport – the movement of charged particles – in membrane materials and catalyst performance. The work also advanced new approaches to designing photoelectrochemical assemblies , including metal-insulator-semiconductor architectures, for CO 2 reduction. ![in research facility Tobias Kistler, Chemical Sciences Division principal research associate, assembling a solar fuels device at Berkeley Lab’s Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) research facility.](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1440x625px_ImageComponent_DeviceAssembly.jpg) 3. Clarified the fundamentals of corrosion: How are ions born?A project led by Shannon Boettcher, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division, and Martin Head-Gordon, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, has created a validated molecular model which accurately delineates the rates at which ions – chemical species that carry electrical current in solutions – are created when a material rusts and dissolves. The advance will help researchers understand the fundamentals of corrosion in photoelectrochemical devices, a longstanding challenge to the commercialization of artificial photosynthesis. The model also maps out the rates at which ions are consumed at the interface between a solid and a liquid, such as when metals are plated from a solution to fabricate semiconductor chips. By combining laboratory experiments with leading-edge computation, the team’s collaborative study revealed the sequence of molecular events and the resulting barriers that control how fast ions can be formed or consumed. The researchers are currently expanding the approach to complex systems: The aim is to create a general theory that is of broad importance to electrochemical technology in renewable liquid fuel synthesis, batteries, and controlling corrosion processes. The experimental work was completed at the University of Oregon, a partnering LiSA institution where Boettcher was a chemistry and biochemistry professor before joining Berkeley Lab. 4. Developed superfast X-ray techniques to observe a cutting-edge catalyst at work in real timeCopper is one of the best catalysts in artificial photosynthesis for converting CO 2 into liquid fuels like ethanol, ethylene, and propanol. Researchers have wanted to improve the efficiency and product yield of these reactions, but observing them under operando or real-world working conditions at the interface between metal and electrolyte has been a challenge. A project led by Junko Yano, a senior scientist and Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division Director at Berkeley Lab, could enable the operando characterization of chemical reactions that take place where metal and electrolyte meet. Using X-ray beamlines at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource and Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source , the team is developing and applying techniques to determine where chemical reactions take place in active sites of a copper-liquid interface at relevant time scales . The work can enable new insight related to the catalytic mechanism and durability issues in artificial photosynthesis systems. ![in research facility Two images of a researcher in lab coats and safety goggles working with complex scientific equipment. In the first image, a researcher adjusts controls on a panel while others observe. In the second image, the same researcher interacts with a large, metallic vacuum chamber, closely examining the device.](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1440x625px_ImageComponent_SputterTool.jpg) 5. Discovered new materials for solar-driven CO 2 conversion to fuels and chemicalsPhotoelectrochemical devices for solar fuels applications rely on the reactions occurring on semiconductor surfaces under illumination. However, many otherwise promising semiconductors are not conducive for the desired CO 2 reduction chemistry due to underperformance in chemical stability and selectivity. Recent work by Joel Ager and his research team discovered two ways to overcome these challenges. First, they showed that an appropriately chosen metal oxide film can both protect the semiconductor from corrosion while allowing electrons to flow to a catalyst, allowing for solar-driven synthesis of ethylene from CO 2 . Next, his team showed that Cu(InGa)S 2 or CIGS – a material used in the photovoltaic industry, but previously overlooked for solar fuels – can convert CO 2 to chemicals like carbon monoxide and formic acid all by itself, without any need for protective coatings or co-catalysts. This work was in collaboration with teams from imec Belgium and the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley Lab. These breakthroughs point to the vast potential of solar-driven CO 2 conversion and open new research avenues for exploration. This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science. ![in research facility Finn Babbe, Chemical Sciences Division staff scientist and Laser Lab lead at Berkeley Lab’s Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) research facility.](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/New_ImageComponent_XBD-202406-103-003.jpg) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to delivering solutions for humankind through research in clean energy, a healthy planet, and discovery science. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Researchers from around the world rely on the Lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science . ![in research facility LiSA JCAP renewal solar fuels hub](https://newscenter.lbl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/JCAP_FundingRenewal-v3-1200px.png) Texas A&M Teams Up To Advance Robotic Dexterity![in research facility a rendering of a robot and human hand about to touch](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Engineering-robot-dexterity-350x197.jpg) Texas A&M University is joining a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC), led by Northwestern University, seeking to develop robots capable of enhancing human labor. A central goal of the Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) center is to make robotic assistance accessible and applicable to a wide range of physical actions through an engineered system of dexterous robotic hands, AI-powered fine motor skills, human interface, as well as developing the workforce and training for the future. The five-year, $26 million grant also includes Carnegie-Mellon University and Florida A&M University, with faculty support from Syracuse University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The center’s NSF grant has the potential to be renewed for another $26 million for an additional five years. Founded in 1985, the NSF ERC program supports U.S. universities conducting convergent research, education and technology translation aimed at creating substantial societal impacts. “We are excited to be a part of this groundbreaking initiative that will redefine the future of work and push the boundaries of technology to make a tangible impact,” said Dr. Robert H. Bishop, vice chancellor and dean for Texas A&M Engineering. “At Texas A&M, we believe in harnessing innovation to solve pressing problems and improve lives.” Dr. Cynthia Hipwell, Oscar S. Wyatt, Jr. ’45 Chair II Professor in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, will serve as a deputy director for the HAND center. Hipwell said that current robotic tools typically require specialized expertise and an expensive integration process and thus are limited to high-volume, highly repeatable operations. The center’s approach in creating robotics that adaptably perform many different tasks and are easy for workers to use could provide affordable support to address labor shortages in manufacturing and caregiving, as well as food processing, handling precious or dangerous materials and more. ![in research facility An early prototype of robotic hands soldering.](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Eng-robot-dexterity-2-350x197.jpg) “Our vision is that it will be like the transition from mainframe computers used by specialized programmers to the arrival of the Apple Macintosh or PC [personal computer] as a tool that everybody could use,” said Hipwell. “We have many small and medium enterprises around our country that haven’t been able to benefit from automation technology. We want to create something that workers can use as a tool to complete their work. That’s really our vision — democratizing access to robotics.” To achieve the goal of providing a practical and easily accessible tool, researchers have divided their work into three main areas: - Hands: sensing, actuation, and design
- Intelligent dexterity: simulation, representation, and control
- Human interface: multimodal interface, no-code programming, and social/legal/industrial studies
The center will also develop workforce training materials and an intuitive training interface enabling human operators of all education levels to teach the robots how to perform their necessary tasks. “The idea is that these tools could be something that any of us could use,” said Hipwell. “This could be something that could help a worker with physical work, or it could help someone stay in their home longer because they have physical assistance with some of their tasks. It could even be brought into areas where the work is dangerous and offer a way to help someone do physical work less dangerously.” The HAND center brings together experts in various fields, including materials, manufacturing, manipulation, soft robotics, artificial intelligence, machine perception, modeling, haptics, human-robot interaction, participatory design and research, team science, education, law and the social sciences. “To make a breakthrough in this area, you can’t just move one aspect of it forward — just actuators or just control algorithms or just interface mechanisms. I think making a breakthrough requires this coordinated system approach,” said Hipwell. “We have the opportunity with this system-focused effort to make a much larger impact than we would as individual researchers working alone.” In addition to Hipwell, several Texas A&M researchers will contribute to the center’s focus areas. Dr. Debra Fowler , executive director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, will lead overall workforce development programs for the center, leading the creation of programs of study for future leaders in the field and programs for technicians, workers, and K-12 and community college outreach. Dr. Robert Ambrose will lead the High Consequence Materials Handling Testbed, which will help the center partner with collaborators such as NASA and Los Alamos National Laboratory on specific applications of HAND technology. Drs. Rebecca Friesen and Taylor Ware will contribute to the human interface and hands research areas, and Dr. Mohamed Gharib will lead unique K-12 and community college outreach programs. Media contact: Alyson Chapman, [email protected] Related Stories![in research facility People walking in a crowded staircase](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/News-CSCE-ZachInside-14August2024-800x600-c-default.jpg) 25 By 25 Goal Achieved In Fall 2023The College of Engineering initiative expanded engineering education access to meet rising demand for engineers in Texas and beyond. ![in research facility a rendering of a building on campus with a digital half.](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/campus-digital-twin-800x600-c-default.jpg) Twinning: Texas A&M Research Aims To Create 3D Model Of CampusResearchers are working to create a digital twin of the College Station campus to optimize class times and locations. ![in research facility An illustration of a rhinoceros head.](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/News-NUEN-RhinoSketch-26July2024-800x600-c-default.jpg) Radioactive Rhinoceros Horns May Deter PoachingA Texas A&M doctoral student and the Rhisotope Project team up to use radioisotopes to protect endangered rhinos from poachers. Recent Stories![in research facility close up of a man pouring red wine in a glass](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-1445388023-800x600-c-default.jpg) Drinking Alcohol Before Conceiving A Child Could Accelerate Their AgingTexas A&M research shows parents' chronic alcohol use has an enduring effect on the next generation. ![in research facility A person in a maroon shirt and cap paints lines on a football field at an empty stadium. He is crouched down, holding a paint sprayer, ensuring the markings are clear and precise.](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20231025_Kyle_Painting_MM_079-1-800x600-c-default.jpg) From Turfgrass To TouchdownsGo behind the scenes to see how Aggie turfgrass science students keep Kyle Field game day ready. ![in research facility Decorative photo of the Academic Building](https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/subscribe-2400x640-c-default.jpg) Subscribe to the Texas A&M Today newsletter for the latest news and stories every week. Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World Read our research on: Full Topic List Regions & Countries- Publications
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Read Our Research On: Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024![in research facility Conceptual image of an oversized voting ballot box in a large crowd of people with shallow depth of field](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_feature.jpg?w=640) Confidence in U.S. public opinion polling was shaken by errors in 2016 and 2020. In both years’ general elections, many polls underestimated the strength of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. These errors laid bare some real limitations of polling. In the midterms that followed those elections, polling performed better . But many Americans remain skeptical that it can paint an accurate portrait of the public’s political preferences. Restoring people’s confidence in polling is an important goal, because robust and independent public polling has a critical role to play in a democratic society. It gathers and publishes information about the well-being of the public and about citizens’ views on major issues. And it provides an important counterweight to people in power, or those seeking power, when they make claims about “what the people want.” The challenges facing polling are undeniable. In addition to the longstanding issues of rising nonresponse and cost, summer 2024 brought extraordinary events that transformed the presidential race . The good news is that people with deep knowledge of polling are working hard to fix the problems exposed in 2016 and 2020, experimenting with more data sources and interview approaches than ever before. Still, polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot. With that in mind, here are some key points to know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election. Probability sampling (or “random sampling”). This refers to a polling method in which survey participants are recruited using random sampling from a database or list that includes nearly everyone in the population. The pollster selects the sample. The survey is not open for anyone who wants to sign up. Online opt-in polling (or “nonprobability sampling”). These polls are recruited using a variety of methods that are sometimes referred to as “convenience sampling.” Respondents come from a variety of online sources such as ads on social media or search engines, websites offering rewards in exchange for survey participation, or self-enrollment. Unlike surveys with probability samples, people can volunteer to participate in opt-in surveys. Nonresponse and nonresponse bias. Nonresponse is when someone sampled for a survey does not participate. Nonresponse bias occurs when the pattern of nonresponse leads to error in a poll estimate. For example, college graduates are more likely than those without a degree to participate in surveys, leading to the potential that the share of college graduates in the resulting sample will be too high. Mode of interview. This refers to the format in which respondents are presented with and respond to survey questions. The most common modes are online, live telephone, text message and paper. Some polls use more than one mode. Weighting. This is a statistical procedure pollsters perform to make their survey align with the broader population on key characteristics like age, race, etc. For example, if a survey has too many college graduates compared with their share in the population, people without a college degree are “weighted up” to match the proper share. How are election polls being conducted?Pollsters are making changes in response to the problems in previous elections. As a result, polling is different today than in 2016. Most U.S. polling organizations that conducted and publicly released national surveys in both 2016 and 2022 (61%) used methods in 2022 that differed from what they used in 2016 . And change has continued since 2022. ![in research facility A sand chart showing that, as the number of public pollsters in the U.S. has grown, survey methods have become more diverse.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_3.png?w=640) One change is that the number of active polling organizations has grown significantly, indicating that there are fewer barriers to entry into the polling field. The number of organizations that conduct national election polls more than doubled between 2000 and 2022. This growth has been driven largely by pollsters using inexpensive opt-in sampling methods. But previous Pew Research Center analyses have demonstrated how surveys that use nonprobability sampling may have errors twice as large , on average, as those that use probability sampling. The second change is that many of the more prominent polling organizations that use probability sampling – including Pew Research Center – have shifted from conducting polls primarily by telephone to using online methods, or some combination of online, mail and telephone. The result is that polling methodologies are far more diverse now than in the past. (For more about how public opinion polling works, including a chapter on election polls, read our short online course on public opinion polling basics .) All good polling relies on statistical adjustment called “weighting,” which makes sure that the survey sample aligns with the broader population on key characteristics. Historically, public opinion researchers have adjusted their data using a core set of demographic variables to correct imbalances between the survey sample and the population. But there is a growing realization among survey researchers that weighting a poll on just a few variables like age, race and gender is insufficient for getting accurate results. Some groups of people – such as older adults and college graduates – are more likely to take surveys, which can lead to errors that are too sizable for a simple three- or four-variable adjustment to work well. Adjusting on more variables produces more accurate results, according to Center studies in 2016 and 2018 . A number of pollsters have taken this lesson to heart. For example, recent high-quality polls by Gallup and The New York Times/Siena College adjusted on eight and 12 variables, respectively. Our own polls typically adjust on 12 variables . In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary to have that much intervention by the pollster. But the real world of survey research is not perfect. ![in research facility](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_1.png?w=640) Predicting who will vote is critical – and difficult. Preelection polls face one crucial challenge that routine opinion polls do not: determining who of the people surveyed will actually cast a ballot. Roughly a third of eligible Americans do not vote in presidential elections , despite the enormous attention paid to these contests. Determining who will abstain is difficult because people can’t perfectly predict their future behavior – and because many people feel social pressure to say they’ll vote even if it’s unlikely. No one knows the profile of voters ahead of Election Day. We can’t know for sure whether young people will turn out in greater numbers than usual, or whether key racial or ethnic groups will do so. This means pollsters are left to make educated guesses about turnout, often using a mix of historical data and current measures of voting enthusiasm. This is very different from routine opinion polls, which mostly do not ask about people’s future intentions. When major news breaks, a poll’s timing can matter. Public opinion on most issues is remarkably stable, so you don’t necessarily need a recent poll about an issue to get a sense of what people think about it. But dramatic events can and do change public opinion , especially when people are first learning about a new topic. For example, polls this summer saw notable changes in voter attitudes following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. Polls taken immediately after a major event may pick up a shift in public opinion, but those shifts are sometimes short-lived. Polls fielded weeks or months later are what allow us to see whether an event has had a long-term impact on the public’s psyche. How accurate are polls?The answer to this question depends on what you want polls to do. Polls are used for all kinds of purposes in addition to showing who’s ahead and who’s behind in a campaign. Fair or not, however, the accuracy of election polling is usually judged by how closely the polls matched the outcome of the election. ![in research facility A diverging bar chart showing polling errors in U.S. presidential elections.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_4.png?w=640) By this standard, polling in 2016 and 2020 performed poorly. In both years, state polling was characterized by serious errors. National polling did reasonably well in 2016 but faltered in 2020. In 2020, a post-election review of polling by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found that “the 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude: It was the highest in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in at least 20 years for state-level estimates of the vote in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial contests.” How big were the errors? Polls conducted in the last two weeks before the election suggested that Biden’s margin over Trump was nearly twice as large as it ended up being in the final national vote tally. Errors of this size make it difficult to be confident about who is leading if the election is closely contested, as many U.S. elections are . Pollsters are rightly working to improve the accuracy of their polls. But even an error of 4 or 5 percentage points isn’t too concerning if the purpose of the poll is to describe whether the public has favorable or unfavorable opinions about candidates , or to show which issues matter to which voters. And on questions that gauge where people stand on issues, we usually want to know broadly where the public stands. We don’t necessarily need to know the precise share of Americans who say, for example, that climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Even judged by its performance in recent elections, polling can still provide a faithful picture of public sentiment on the important issues of the day. The 2022 midterms saw generally accurate polling, despite a wave of partisan polls predicting a broad Republican victory. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that “polls were more accurate in 2022 than in any cycle since at least 1998, with almost no bias toward either party.” Moreover, a handful of contrarian polls that predicted a 2022 “red wave” largely washed out when the votes were tallied. In sum, if we focus on polling in the most recent national election, there’s plenty of reason to be encouraged. Compared with other elections in the past 20 years, polls have been less accurate when Donald Trump is on the ballot. Preelection surveys suffered from large errors – especially at the state level – in 2016 and 2020, when Trump was standing for election. But they performed reasonably well in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, when he was not. ![in research facility Pew Research Center illustration](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_2.png?w=640) During the 2016 campaign, observers speculated about the possibility that Trump supporters might be less willing to express their support to a pollster – a phenomenon sometimes described as the “shy Trump effect.” But a committee of polling experts evaluated five different tests of the “shy Trump” theory and turned up little to no evidence for each one . Later, Pew Research Center and, in a separate test, a researcher from Yale also found little to no evidence in support of the claim. Instead, two other explanations are more likely. One is about the difficulty of estimating who will turn out to vote. Research has found that Trump is popular among people who tend to sit out midterms but turn out for him in presidential election years. Since pollsters often use past turnout to predict who will vote, it can be difficult to anticipate when irregular voters will actually show up. The other explanation is that Republicans in the Trump era have become a little less likely than Democrats to participate in polls . Pollsters call this “partisan nonresponse bias.” Surprisingly, polls historically have not shown any particular pattern of favoring one side or the other. The errors that favored Democratic candidates in the past eight years may be a result of the growth of political polarization, along with declining trust among conservatives in news organizations and other institutions that conduct polls. Whatever the cause, the fact that Trump is again the nominee of the Republican Party means that pollsters must be especially careful to make sure all segments of the population are properly represented in surveys. The real margin of error is often about double the one reported. A typical election poll sample of about 1,000 people has a margin of sampling error that’s about plus or minus 3 percentage points. That number expresses the uncertainty that results from taking a sample of the population rather than interviewing everyone . Random samples are likely to differ a little from the population just by chance, in the same way that the quality of your hand in a card game varies from one deal to the next. ![in research facility A table showing that sampling error is not the only kind of polling error.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/SR_24.08.28_facts-about-polling_5.png?w=400) The problem is that sampling error is not the only kind of error that affects a poll. Those other kinds of error, in fact, can be as large or larger than sampling error. Consequently, the reported margin of error can lead people to think that polls are more accurate than they really are. There are three other, equally important sources of error in polling: noncoverage error , where not all the target population has a chance of being sampled; nonresponse error, where certain groups of people may be less likely to participate; and measurement error, where people may not properly understand the questions or misreport their opinions. Not only does the margin of error fail to account for those other sources of potential error, putting a number only on sampling error implies to the public that other kinds of error do not exist. Several recent studies show that the average total error in a poll estimate may be closer to twice as large as that implied by a typical margin of sampling error. This hidden error underscores the fact that polls may not be precise enough to call the winner in a close election. Other important things to rememberTransparency in how a poll was conducted is associated with better accuracy . The polling industry has several platforms and initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in survey methodology. These include AAPOR’s transparency initiative and the Roper Center archive . Polling organizations that participate in these organizations have less error, on average, than those that don’t participate, an analysis by FiveThirtyEight found . Participation in these transparency efforts does not guarantee that a poll is rigorous, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal. Transparency in polling means disclosing essential information, including the poll’s sponsor, the data collection firm, where and how participants were selected, modes of interview, field dates, sample size, question wording, and weighting procedures. There is evidence that when the public is told that a candidate is extremely likely to win, some people may be less likely to vote . Following the 2016 election, many people wondered whether the pervasive forecasts that seemed to all but guarantee a Hillary Clinton victory – two modelers put her chances at 99% – led some would-be voters to conclude that the race was effectively over and that their vote would not make a difference. There is scientific research to back up that claim: A team of researchers found experimental evidence that when people have high confidence that one candidate will win, they are less likely to vote. This helps explain why some polling analysts say elections should be covered using traditional polling estimates and margins of error rather than speculative win probabilities (also known as “probabilistic forecasts”). National polls tell us what the entire public thinks about the presidential candidates, but the outcome of the election is determined state by state in the Electoral College . The 2000 and 2016 presidential elections demonstrated a difficult truth: The candidate with the largest share of support among all voters in the United States sometimes loses the election. In those two elections, the national popular vote winners (Al Gore and Hillary Clinton) lost the election in the Electoral College (to George W. Bush and Donald Trump). In recent years, analysts have shown that Republican candidates do somewhat better in the Electoral College than in the popular vote because every state gets three electoral votes regardless of population – and many less-populated states are rural and more Republican. For some, this raises the question: What is the use of national polls if they don’t tell us who is likely to win the presidency? In fact, national polls try to gauge the opinions of all Americans, regardless of whether they live in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, a reliably red state like Idaho or a reliably blue state like Rhode Island. In short, national polls tell us what the entire citizenry is thinking. Polls that focus only on the competitive states run the risk of giving too little attention to the needs and views of the vast majority of Americans who live in uncompetitive states – about 80%. Fortunately, this is not how most pollsters view the world . As the noted political scientist Sidney Verba explained, “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.” - Survey Methods
- Trust, Facts & Democracy
- Voter Files
![Photo of Scott Keeter Download Scott Keeter's photo](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2012/11/Scott_Keeter.jpg?w=320) Scott Keeter is a senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center . ![Photo of Courtney Kennedy Download Courtney Kennedy's photo](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/Courtney_Kennedy.jpg?w=320) Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center . How do people in the U.S. take Pew Research Center surveys, anyway?How public polling has changed in the 21st century, what 2020’s election poll errors tell us about the accuracy of issue polling, a field guide to polling: election 2020 edition, methods 101: how is polling done around the world, most popular. 901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries Research TopicsABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts . © 2024 Pew Research Center ![](//rss3.fun/777/templates/cheerup/res/banner1.gif) |
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NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems.
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A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research.
Core Facilities and Service Centers Core Facilities or Service Centers are centralized shared research resources that provide access to instruments, technologies, services, and in many cases expert consultation and training to researchers. Across the Institute, there are more than 50 core facilities.
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Core facilities allow scientists to perform experiments needing specialized technologies in a time- and cost-efficient way. They became increasingly important and now produce a significant amount of research data. Experiments carried out in core facilities ...
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital began over 200 years ago. Today, the Mass General Research Institute is home to the largest hospital-based research program in the United States.
Core facilities are central hubs of discovery Core facilities can boost an institution's capacity for research collaboration, but they present challenges for those who run them.
The NIH Clinical Center, America's research hospital, provides a versatile clinical research environment enabling the NIH mission to improve human health by investigating the pathogenesis of disease; conducting first-in-human clinical trials with an emphasis on rare diseases and diseases of high public health impact; developing state-of-the-art diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic ...
The Division of Technical Resources (DTR), Office of Research Facilities (ORF) is an International Association for Continuing Education & Training (IACET) accredited provider. Division of Technical Resources (DTR) is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). (DTR) complies with the ANSI/IACET ...
Research Laboratories are workplaces for the conduct of scientific research. This WBDG Building Type page will summarize the key architectural, engineering, operational, safety, and sustainability considerations for the design of Research Laboratories. The authors recognize that in the 21st century clients are pushing project design teams to ...
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The Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick) serves as a collaborative resource that facilitates multidisciplinary research to understand, treat, prevent, and eradicate diseases caused by novel, emerging, and highly virulent viruses. The IRF-Frederick is part of the NIAID's Division of Clinical Research (DCR) within NIH.
Animal Research Facilities, also known as vivariums, are specially designed building types that accommodate exquisitely controlled environments for the care and maintenance of experimental animals. Research Laboratories are complex, technically sophisticated, and mechanically intensive structures that are expensive to build and to maintain.
UF Research advances the understanding of the world, generates creative breakthroughs, creates opportunities for economic growth, and more.
Research Centers and Institutes The University of Washington is known for its strategic, multidisciplinary research. Within our extensive network of Centers and Institutes, UW researchers, staff, and students work across disciplines to extend the boundaries of knowledge.
The Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center - the largest new building solely dedicated to biomedical research at an American medical school* - officially opened June 17 at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The lab plan on each floor is designed around the idea of flexible "research ...
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Sufficient Accommodation Optimized layouts with defined spaces for storage, workspaces, services, meetings, casual discussions, training sessions and congregations make up for an efficient research facility that fosters an environment of growth and innovation. This happens by a thorough understanding of the space requirements of the numerous processes and activities that happen in a research ...
Aug. 30 grand opening set for NE Rice Research and Extension Center "We are looking forward to showing this beautiful facility to the public — for whom it is built." — Tim Burcham. By Mary Hightower U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Aug. 26, 2024. Fast facts: 30 event includes facility tours
The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has received $55 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to accelerate development, evaluation and implementation of improved healthcare interventions.. The seven-year award is the largest active research grant at Northwestern and extends a legacy of NIH funding that began when the institute ...
Auburn University's Stormwater Research Facility (AU-SRF) has been tasked with creating design guidelines for erosion and sediment control practices used on highway construction sites to minimize stormwater pollution.. Michael Perez, director of the AU-SRF and Brasfield & Gorrie associate professor in civil and environmental engineering, is the principal investigator (PI) on the three-year ...
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The center's NSF grant has the potential to be renewed for another $26 million for an additional five years. Founded in 1985, the NSF ERC program supports U.S. universities conducting convergent research, education and technology translation aimed at creating substantial societal impacts.
ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions.
Source: CBRE Research, CBRE Data Center Solutions, H1 2024. Figure 2: H1 2024 Wholesale Secondary Market Fundamentals *Vacancy Y-o-Y changes are calculated by comparing the difference between H1 2024 and H1 2023. **Rental rates are quoted asking rates for 250+ kW at N+1/Tier III requirements.