What Is a Core Facility? How Companies Use Shared Research Infrastructure
Quick answer
A **core facility** (or research infrastructure) is a shared, professionally-staffed laboratory that gives researchers access to expensive instruments and expert services — cryo-EM, sequencing, mass spectrometry, imaging, flow cytometry — on a pay-per-use basis, instead of every group buying its own. In Sweden they are hosted mainly by universities and national platforms like SciLifeLab, and most are open to external and industry users, not just the host's own scientists.
Key takeaways
- You book time or services, you don't buy the instrument — this is how startups and companies access million-euro equipment
- Core facilities provide expertise + maintained instruments + data, not just hardware
- In Sweden they sit inside universities and national platforms (e.g. SciLifeLab)
- Most accept external/industry users, usually at a different rate tier than internal academics
- The hard part is discovery — each institution lists its own; AidMix aggregates across them
If you've ever needed a technique your lab doesn't own — a cryo-electron microscope, a next-generation sequencer, a 600 MHz NMR — you don't buy it. You use a core facility: a shared resource, run by specialist staff, that maintains the instrument and often runs the experiment or analysis for you.
Core facilities exist because modern instruments are too expensive and too specialised for every group to own and operate well. Concentrating them in a shared, expert-run unit means better data, higher instrument uptime, and access for groups (and companies) that could never justify the capital cost.
What a core facility actually gives you
- Access to high-end instruments on a per-use basis.
- Expertise — staff who run and optimise the method and help interpret data.
- Reproducibility — calibrated, maintained, documented workflows.
- Sometimes compliance (GMP/ISO) for regulated work.
How companies use them
Biotech and pharma teams routinely outsource to academic and commercial core facilities for exactly the capabilities they lack in-house — structural biology, sequencing, bioanalysis, imaging. Access is usually open to external users at an industry rate. See how to outsource lab work in Sweden and browse capabilities on AidMix.
Run a facility? List it on AidMix for free so researchers and companies can find you by capability and city.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can companies use university core facilities?
Generally yes — most accept external and industry users, typically at a higher rate than internal academic users.
What's the difference between a core facility and a CRO?
A core facility is usually a shared academic or institutional resource; a CRO is a commercial contract research organisation. Both can run work for you; AidMix lists both.
Do I need my own staff to use one?
Often no — many facilities offer a full-service option where their experts run the work and deliver data.