Researchers on campus are now just one click away from brain imaging tools, cancer prevention data and hundreds of other resources.
Thanks to a new UW-Madison database, researchers no longer have to rely on word of mouth to find research equipment efficiently. Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced the new Directory of Resources for Researchers Monday — it allows researchers to access databases, technologies and relevant contact information among other resources.
About 650 resources and services are now available on the directory, which opened up to researchers in June, Blank said in a statement.
“The directory is the first centralized, publicly searchable directory of shared research resources, services and cores at UW-Madison,” Blank said.
With a wide range of academic departments represented — from humanities to biology and social sciences to arts — UW-Madison is unique compared to other schools which tend to focus more on medical, biological and physical sciences, according to Isabelle Girard, the director of UW-Madison’s Office of Campus Research Cores.
“Similar efforts at peer institutions are typically focused on biomedical resources, but our Directory encompasses shared resources and services in all disciplines, and will foster interdisciplinary research,” Girard said.
Feedback has been “very supportive” so far, Girard added.
“Researchers are excited by this opportunity to quickly identify resources across campus,” Girard said. “Even researchers and core managers who have been on campus for years have expressed pleasant surprise at learning of resources they can access of which they were previously unaware.”
