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USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Reseach Center at Baylor College of Medicine Home Page

Center-wide Equipment and Space Management

  • Introduction
  • Equipment Maintenance and Repair Program Forms
  • Storage/Disposal/Space Request Form

Introduction

The Space and Equipment Committee was created in 1993 by Dr. Bier to assist him in the allocation of space and equipment at the Center. Subsequently, the Committee also was asked by Dr. Bier to establish the Center-wide Equipment Maintenance/Repair Program in 2001 to make sure the major instruments at the Center, including those in the core facilities, are properly maintained or repaired to support the exciting research programs of the faculty. Kendal Hirschi is the chair of the Committee and he is supported by Fida Bacha, Yong Xu, Lanlan Shen, Nancy Moran, Qi Wu and Bill Ogden. The Committee reviews all requests and submits the recommendations to Dr. Bier. All space and equipment requests must be approved by Dr. Bier. All approvals related to space and movement of equipment (reassignment, storage, or disposal) must be coordinated with Lou Esquivel at 87015 or an e-mail to cnrcfacilities@bcm.edu. All the request forms are available on the CNRC intranet. To facilitate processing of the requests, please provide as much information as possible and submit all requests and necessary documents to Kendal Hirschi (kendalh@bcm.edu) electronically via email.

Please note that all requests for funds from the Center-wide Equipment Maintenance/Repair Program must be accompanied by usage/maintenance logs and/or a service quote. All instruments costing $5,000 or more will qualify for support from the program regardless of whether the instruments were purchased using CNRC fund or research awards. To minimize instrument downtime, the Space and Equipment Committee attempts to review and finalize their decision within 24 hours upon receipt of the request.

The Space and Equipment Committee was created to serve the faculty and all requests will be reviewed promptly. Therefore, your help to provide all the necessary information and documents is very much appreciated.

Selection of Request Forms:

Instructions to complete the forms can be found on the request forms. However, requests should only be submitted by CNRC faculty. If the requests are to be prepared by staff member, please be sure to include the name of the faculty and his/her contact information in the request form.

To request relocation of functional equipment, please complete the Equipment Request Form on the Equipment Maintenance & Repair Program Forms page.

To request support to maintain or repair a major piece of equipment , i.e. equipment costing $5,000 or more, please complete the Repair Request Form on the Equipment Maintenance & Repair Program Forms page.

To request storage or disposal of equipment, please complete the Storage Request Form on the Storage/Disposal/Space Program Form page.

To request new space, please complete the CNRC_Space_Request Form on the Storage/Disposal/Space Program Form page.

To request space to store study equipment/supplies or to assemble study materials, please contact Bill Ogden (bogden@bcm.edu or 713-798-7032) for initial assessment of needs and to identify potential space. Once the space has been identified, please complete the Study Equipment/Supplies Storage Request Form on the Storage/Disposal/Space Program Form page.

Equipment Maintenance and Repair Program Forms

Equipment Request Form

To request relocation of functional equipment, please complete the Equipment Request Form. Be sure to justify your request and identify the current location of the equipment and the new location. Please follow the instructions on how to prepare the equipment for the move once the request has been approved by Dr. Bier. Please note that no equipment can be moved to unassigned spaces at the Center. If the equipment is to be moved to a common shared laboratory space, please be sure there is sufficient space and infrastructure to accommodate the equipment.

Repair Request Form

To request support to maintain or repair a major piece of equipment , i.e. equipment costing $5,000 or more, please complete the Repair Request Form. Please adhere to the guidelines on the form and provide all the necessary support documents in your submission. Omission of any of the required support documents will automatically disqualify the request. Therefore, the Space and Equipment Committee strongly encourages all faculty members to establish a usage/maintenance log on all of their major instruments whether they are a shared piece of equipment or an equipment supporting a single project.

Storage/Disposal/Space Request Form

Storage Request Form

To request storage or disposal of equipment, please complete the Storage Request Form. Once the request has been approved by Dr. Bier, please follow the instructions on how to prepare the equipment and coordinate the storage or disposal with Lou Esquivel at 87015 or an e-mail to cnrcfacilities@bcm.edu.

Equipment Move Procedures

CNRC Building Services will not coordinate moves of equipment without a written WORK REQUEST. Certain requests may be of the magnitude to involve coordinating the scheduling of the Physical Plant movers. CNRC mechanics may need to be scheduled to assist with door removals or other move issues.

  1. Work request should submitted with complete equipment information including BAYLOR ID#, the item description, Model #, and serial #.
  2. All work requests need to be reviewed  by the Space and Equipment Committee using the Equipment Request Form and approved by the CNRC Director, Dr. Bier. They will be assigned a priority status due to possible overtime charges.
  3. Copy of the Space and Equipment Committee and Dr. Bier's approval for move / change of responsible user should be submitted to Building Services.
  4. All equipment to be moved must be decontaminated according to Office of Environmental Safety (OES) standards and have a safety clearance tag from the OES through their on-line safety clearance form.
  5. Equipment will not be moved until the OES safety clearance tag is obtained.
  6. Once safety clearance has been obtained, physical plant movers will be scheduled.

Procedure For Equipment Moves To Storage

  1. Complete a Storage Request Form and submit it to the Space and Equipment Committee to secure Dr. Bier’s approval for move to storage.
  2. Equipment must be safety checked and tag cleared by OES
  3. Please submit a work request with complete equipment information including BAYLOR ID#, the item description, model #, and serial #.
  4. Please label all equipment to be moved as follows:
    1. PI name and phone number
    2. Baylor ID#/ Item description/ model#/ manufacturer/ serial #
    3. Identify if the equipment is in working condition.
    4. Date of last use.
  5. If equipment is not operating correctly state the problem or that it is being retained for critical parts.

Procedure For Document Storage

  1. Standard size storage boxes are available for your documents upon request.
  2. Documents boxes need to be labeled on the exterior with the date, name of PI, and contents.
  3. Submit a work request to have the boxes moved to storage or offsite to Iron Mountain.
  4. Please note that Iron Mountain charges a fee for the storage.
  5. Documents from the past five years will be stored in the CNRC archive room
  6. Documents five to 25 years will be stored offsite at Iron Mountain
  7. Documents older than 25 years. will be returned to the PI for removal or disposal.