The Core/Shared Instrumentation Fund supports acquisition of shared instrumentation—including equipment, datasets, and repositories — that enables major research endeavors in the sciences, medicine and engineering and provides USC researchers with greater access to shared equipment and key resources.
The solicitation invites proposals from core facilities and USC faculty members for the acquisition of equipment, datasets, computing resources and repositories (existing or to be obtained) located in the PI’s laboratory. The fund is not intended for purchase of computers unless they are integrated with other types of instrumentation.
Awards under this program are made through a competitive peer-reviewed process. All equipment supported under this announcement must be made available to the entire university community and proposals must include a list of users/user base to be competitive.
This Request for Proposals is for USC faculty members and core laboratory directors:
- Type A: Proposal requesting funding for acquisition of equipment to be located at a core facility or PI lab.
- Type B: Proposal submitted by those seeking external funding where a match is required (e.g., NIH S10, NSF MRI, DoD DURIP).
All requests must be made in advance of equipment acquisition and in advance of submitting equipment proposals to external sponsors.
The Core/Shared Instrumentation Fund program will consider:
- Type A: requests of up to $300,000.
- Type B: requests of up to $200,000 for cost-share on equipment proposals submitted to external sponsors. Cost-share requests must be submitted at least six weeks prior to the external proposal due date to enable peer review and are required to obtain external funding at least equal to USC’s contribution for acquisition of equipment. All awards made for proposal cost-share are conditional and depend on success in receiving external support.
| Type A Deadline: 5pm, Monday, September 20, 2021 Type B Deadline: Open; proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis. View the RFP for full proposal requirements. |
Proposal Submission
Nominations must be submitted via our Grant Portal.
For additional information or inquiries, please contact us at rii@usc.edu.
Previous Awardees
2010 – 2021
2021 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Type-A
Awardee: Andrea Armani
Equipment: Asher and RTA
Facility: O’Brien Nanofabrication Laboratory
Awardee: Bora Gencturk
Equipment: Imaging Equipment
Facility: Structures and Materials Research Laboratory
Awardee: Danny Wang
Equipment: 7T body coil
Facility: Center for Image Acquisition, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute
Awardee: Sergey Nuzhdin
Equipment: Tecan EVO 100 Pickolo and Cyto 300
Facility: Genomics Core
Awardee: Peter Conti
Equipment: X-RAD320
Facility: Molecular Imaging Center
Awardee: Andrea Hodge
Equipment: Stefan Meyer Systems Fast MR-3 Active Compensation System (ACS)
Facility: Core Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging
Awardee: Alireza Abdolvahabi
Equipment: Triple Quad™ 5500+ System – QTRAP® Ready
Facility: Mass Spectrometry Core
2020 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Type-A
Awardee: Andrea Hodge
Equipment: Xeuss 3.0
Facility: Core Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging
Awardee: Andrea Armani
Equipment: Electron Beam Evaporator
Facility: Center of Excellence in Nanofabrication
Awardee: Sue Martin
Equipment: Open Specimen
Facility: Biorepository
Core Instrumentation-Dean’s
Dean’s Name: Yannis Yortsos & Amber Miller
Equipment: EELS Spectrometer and Camera Upgrades
Facility: Core Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging
Cores-Lite
Awardee: David Hutchins
Equipment: BD Accuri C6 Plus Flow Cytometer
Facility: Professor Hutchins’ Laboratory
Awardee: Richard Brutchey
Equipment: PELCO BioWave Pro+ Laboratory Microwave and Electron Microscopy Tissue Processing Application Kit
Facility: Core Center of Excellence in Nano Imagining (CNI)
Awardee: Richard Roberts
Equipment: Expi Expression System and a Biotek Plate Reader HTX (S1LFTA)
Facility: Center for Peptide and Protein Engineering
Awardee: Stephen Burke Cronin
Equipment: Broadband Imaging Spectrometer
Facility: SSC 317
2019 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Type A
Awardee: Andrea Armani
Equipment: Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Dicing Saw
Facility: Keck Foundation Photonics Center
Awardee: Steven Nutt
Equipment: Ultimax Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Symmetry Electron backscatter Detector (EBSD)
Facility: Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging (CNI)
Awardee: Xiaojiang Chen
Equipment: Atomic Force Microscope
Facility: NanoBiophysics
Type B
Awardee: Travis Williams
Equipment: High Temperature GPC
Facility: USC Center of Excellence for Molecular Characterization
Core Instrumentation-Dean’s
Dean’s Name: Amber Miller & Yannis Yortsos
Equipment: A1R HD Multiphoton and Visible Confocal Imaging System
Facility: Translational Imaging Center
Dean’s Name: Yannis Yortsos
Equipment: Focused Ion Beam (FIB)/Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) – FEI Helios G4 PFIB Uxe
Facility: Center of Excellence in Nano Imaging (CNI)
Dean’s Name: Vassilios Papadopoulos
Equipment: RapifleX MALDI Tissuetyper. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS)
Facility: School of Pharmacy Translational Research Laboratory
2018 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Type A
Awardee: Richard Roberts
Equipment: Biotage Peptide Synthesis Lab Package
Facility: Peptide Production Core (new core facility)
Awardee: Scott Fraser
Equipment: FEI Talos F200C G2, w/High Pressure Freezer and Automatic Freeze Substitution
Facility: Center for Nanoscale Imaging (formerly CEMMA)
Awardee: Rong Lu
Equipment: S3e Cell Sorter
Facility: Flow Cytometry Core Facility
Awardee: Andrea Armani
Equipment: Ellipsometer/Microscope
Facility: Keck Foundation Photonics Center
Awardee: Annie Wong-Beringer
Equipment: Seahorse XFe96 and XFp
Facility: School of Pharmacy Translational Research Laboratory
Awardee: Wendy Cozen
Equipment: TMA Grand Master and accompanying required LED monitor, barcoder
Facility: Translational Pathology Core Facility (Population-Based Arm)
Awardee: Daniel Campo
Equipment: NextSeq 550: a versatile and powerful DNA sequencer
Facility: UPC Genome Core
Core Instrumentation-Dean’s
Awardee: Laura Mosqueda
Equipment: Flow Cytometry Core Facility Equipment Funding Request
Facility: BD FACSSymphony
Awardee: Yannis Yortsos
Equipment: Acquisition of an electron beam writer for nanolithography
Facility: Keck Photonics Center
CHLA
Awardee: Shahab Asgharzadeh
Equipment: Automated Imaging Mass Cytometry Instrumentation
Facility: Hyperion Module and Leica Bond Rx
2017 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Type A
Awardee: Amir Goldkorn
Equipment: RareCyte CyteFinder/CytePicker and Leica BOND RXm
Facility: the Circulating Tumor Cell Research Core
Awardee: Andrea Armani
Equipment: PlasmaPro ICP
Facility: Photonics Center
Awardee: Steven Nutt
Equipment: FEI NovaNano SEM 450 with Thermo Scientific 100 mm 2 UltraDry Premium EDS
Facility: CEMMA
Awardee: Xiaojiang Chen
Equipment: Zetasizer Nano Z system (ZEN5600)
Facility: Center of Excellence in Nanobiophysics Core
Awardee: Peter Conti
Equipment: Automated Radiosynthesizer (GE)
Facility: USC Molecular Imagining Center – Small Animal Imaging Core
Type B
Awardee: Janos Peti-Peterdi
Equipment: Nikon A1R-MP+ multiphoton microscope
Facility: Cell & Tissue Imaging
2016 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Awardee: Andrew McMahon
Equipment: Lecia Sp8 Upright Confocal Microscope
Facility: Broad CIRM Center for Microscopy
Awardee: John O’Brien
Equipment: SUSS MicroTec Double-sided Mask Aligner
Facility: Center of Excellence in Nanofabrication
Awardee: Steve Nutt
Equipment: Wavelength Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer
Facility: Center of Excellence for Microscopy and Analysis
Awardee: Travis Williams
Equipment: PPMS Expansion Tools
Facility: Center of Excellence for Molecular Characterization
Awardee: John O’Brien
Equipment: Oxford Instruments PlasmaPro System 100/1 Seco
Facility: Vivian Hall of Engineering
Awardee: Xiaojiang Chen
Equipment: MicroCal Isothermal Titration Calorimeters (MicroCal PEAQ-ITC)
Facility: Nanobiophysics core facility
2015 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardee
Awardee: David Hinton
Equipment: N-STORM Single Molecule Super-Resolution and Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope system.
Facility: Cell and Tissue Imaging Core Facility
2014 Core Instrumentation Fund Awardees
Awardee: John O’Brien
Equipment: Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)
Facility: W.M. Keck Foundation Photonics Center Cleanroom
Awardee: John Tower
Equipment: Video Tracking Station
Facility: Video Tracking Core (VTC)
Awardee: Travis Williams
Equipment: ICP-OES Spectrometer and Elemental Analyzer
Facility: Center of Excellence for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
2012 Core Instrumentation Awardees
Awardee: Xiaojiang Chen, Director
Equipment: Multi-Mode Microplate Reader Synergy H4 (BioTek)
Facility: NanoBiophysics Core
Awardee: Victoria Fox, Director
Equipment: Nikon Biostation Live Cell Imager
Facility: USC Stem Cell Core
Awardee: Roberta Marinelli, Director
Equipment: Instrument Suite for Ocean Acidification Studies
Facility: USC Wrigley Institute
Awardee: David Van Den Berg, Director
Equipment: Biomek 3000 Laboratory Automated Workstation
Facility: Molecular Genomics Core
2011 Core Instrumentation Awardees
Awardee: Liqin Zhao, Director of Translational Research Laboratory
Equipment: ABI OpenArray Real-Time PCR System
Lab: Translational Research Laboratory
Awardee: Peter S. Conti, Director of Molecular Imaging Center
Equipment: GENISYS4 Benchtop Preclinical PET Imaging Unit
Lab: USC Molecular Imaging Center (Small Animal Imaging Core)
2010 Core Instrumentation Awardees
Awardee: Peter S. Conti, Director of Molecular Imaging Center
Equipment: IVIS Lumina XR Integrated Digital X-Ray & Optical Imaging Unit
Lab: USC Molecular Imaging Center (Small Animal Imaging Core)
Awardee: David Van Den Berg, Director of Genomic Core Facility
Equipment: Fluidigm Biomark Real-Time PCR System
Lab: USC Molecular Genomic Core Facility
Awardee: Ebrahim Zandi, Director of USC Proteomics Core
Equipment: Orbitrap XL ETX
Lab: USC Proteomics Core Facility