The Vanderbilt University (VU) research programs have remained stable or grown in recent years, even in the face of uncertain financial times and changes to the nation's health care system. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, over 479 research investigators were funded by the NIH and support for competitive research grants from all external sources exceeded $449 million. Benchmarks suggest continued modest growth through 2020. Thus, VU finds itself faced with the competing and extremely challenging demands of growth and infrastructure maintenance in a climate of declining revenue streams. This application requests funds to address the animal research infrastructure need deemed currently to be the highest priority. Specifically funds are requested to enhance containment practices and operational efficiency of Vanderbilt's Preston Research Building (PRB) Rodent Facility. Underutilized diet storage/preparation, necropsy and corridor space will be used to expand the PRB dirty cage wash area. Doing so will improve efficiency of the PRB rodent facility and provide greater containment of soiled caging, reducing the risk of the spread of pathogens among Vanderbilt's unique and valuable mouse models. In addition, new tunnel and rack washers will be purchased to replace aged equipment that is energy inefficient and difficult to maintain. The new equipment will improve through-put within the PRB facility and provide for redundancy with other cage wash facilities on campus. Advances in technology will provide significant water and energy savings (approximately 82% water savings and 51% energy savings per year), thereby reducing the impact of VU cage wash operations on the environment. The improvements will be used to directly support the ongoing research of 132 productive VU faculty investigators with a total of over $88 million in NIH awards (annual total costs) from 18 institutes. If funded, this application will provide a mechanism for Vanderbilt to maintain existig infrastructure while it continues to invest in space and equipment required to support new initiatives and growth of its successful research programs. In addition, the equipment requested is more energy- and space-efficient, which is consistent with the institution's initiative to conserve natural resources and reduce its carbon footprint.
