What is Q-CoFa?
Q-CoFa (Quality at the interface between Core Facilities and their users) is a project funded by BMBF to assess the interactions between core facilities and their users in order to provide recommendations for improving research practices and data quality. It was initiated as a response to the recent data reproducibility crisis in life-sciences, as exemplified by the survey of 1500 scientists published in Nature in 2016, revealing that 70% scientists could not reproduce published results.
Who is Q-CoFa for?
This website is mainly intended for core facility leader but the information is also useful to core facility staff members and users.
Mission of Q-CoFa
This website presents a compilation of practical recommendations on how to ensure research quality in core facilities. The ideas and proposed solutions address all aspects of research quality in core facilities. They are applicable in general or can be adapted to the specific needs of your core facility.
Q-CoFa recommendations are based on:
- Results of the survey of 275 core facilities about research quality and management between CFs and users (in 2020).
- Review of the current literature
- Current guidelines and norms
How can Q-CoFa help me?
- improve research quality
- improve efficiency and service
- review my facility (critical self-assessment)
- benchmarking
- prepare for an audit
- establish a new core facility
New role for core facilities?
- Teach and promote good scientific practices
- Scientific gatekeeping of good quality research
- Deliver a quality stamp in the future?