Research's survival of the thriftiest

Some of the laboratory managers at Sydney's Centenary Institute are concerned that one of the more challenging aspects of their role is about to get harder. The Federal government's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR), which issues licenses and certification to research institutes working with genetically modified organisms, has proposed introducing charges to recover its running expenses. If this happens, the research institute will have to bear the cost. "It would be a whole new area of funding which would have to come out of the institute's infrastructure budget because it would not be allowed for in other areas of funding," says Dr Nick Pearce, the institute's business development manager.

The problem is that for research institutes like the Centenary, finding money for infrastructure is already a bugbear for lab managers. "It's the least glamorous part of what we do," Pearce says. "Ask for money to help you turn on your lights and you don't get many offers." There is no infrastructure component included in research grants and government money for this purpose becomes available only once every three years, he says.

Funding, and not just for infrastructure but also for staff, equipment and research, seems to be the part of the job that keeps those running labs at the Centenary awake at night. "Everyone is always looking for funds," says Dr Bernadette Saunders, who helps to run the mycobacterial lab at the institute. Obviously there are other aspects involved in the role, including managing staff and identifying resources, but funding issues seem to creep into these areas as well.

Prof John Rasko, who heads the institute's gene therapy research unit, believes funding is a recurrent issue for any lab manager, particularly in terms of having enough money to maintain the core group of research officers that is needed if the lab is to keep its competitive edge. "No one wants to have a situation where they don't know from month to month or year to year whether they are going to have a job," he says.

But convincing senior researchers that their wages will continue to arrive every two weeks forms only a part of the lab manager's 'people management' issues. They also have to deal with a high turnover of staff, such as students coming into the lab for only a year or so. The result of this constant exchange of bodies is a heavy training schedule for the lab manager and this has just been complicated further by new occupational health and safety legislation that was recently introduced in New South Wales.

"The new Act means we have to look again at things like the training of staff and just training staff in routine things already takes a lot of time and effort," says Dr Jeff Crosbie, the Centenary's facility and resource manager.

"We have to train a lot of people and even if the person is only staying for three months they need the same training as someone staying for three years."

In Crosbie's opinion, occupational health and safety, especially in NSW, has become a really major issue for lab managers. As well as increasing the burden of managing staff there is also the possibility that occupational health and safety may bring out regulations that require modifications to the building and for an institute the size of the Centenary, these could cost millions. Because this area has become such a problem area for lab managers -- it currently takes up about 85 per cent of Crosbie's time -- he says that in the not too distant future the institute will need to recruit a full-time health and safety officer.

At least this would free up more of the lab managers' time to deal with other issues, such as the problem of how to replace a lot of equipment that is nearing its use-by date. "The Centenary has been running for around 10 years now and a lot of the equipment in the labs, like the centrifuges or the incubators, needs replacing," says Crosbie. "But how do you replace 20 centrifuges or 30?" he asks. "We just don't know yet."

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has tripled its equipment budget this year, but at the same time the UK's Wellcome Trust has killed off its overseas funding of equipment, unless a lab from a developed country is collaborating with labs in developing countries. This new stance works well for some of the institute's labs, such the tuberculosis unit Saunders helps to run. This research area obviously affects developing countries, and collaborations between the Centenary and countries such as Vietnam already exist. But as Pearce points out: "Managing a grant that is spread across three different countries is actually going to be quite a challenge... after all, managing a grant that is being run out of two institutes within Sydney is a challenge."

Another major equipment issue facing lab managers at the Centenary is the rapid turnover of expensive high-tech scientific machinery. Crosbie suggests that leasing such equipment may offer a solution but says that it is difficult to do at the moment because most equipment grants cover only a year but with leasing you need to make an agreement for three to five years. "You can't do that if you don't know where the money will come from," he says. But the leasing of equipment is an area that several lab managers are beginning to mention and Crosbie believes the NHMRC is going to have to review its set-up for the funding of equipment because leasing potentially represents one of the few ways that institutes like the Centenary may be able to fulfill its equipment needs.

At least finding money for basic research has become less of a problem for those running the institute's labs over the last five or so years. "This is perhaps now the easiest area to fund because most of the grants available are for research specifically," Pearce says.

But according to Saunders, medical research in Australia is still under-funded compared with the US. "The NHMRC is giving out more money now but it doubtful that Australian researchers will ever enjoy the unlimited funds available to those in the US," she says. As a result, those running labs at the Centenary have to be clever in the way they use their grants in order to be competitive on an international level. "This is not a bad thing though," Saunders says. "Perhaps a little less money produces better research. It makes us think a bit more about what we're doing."