Any service center, academic center, departmental lab, or individual PI in Mississippi with research instrumentation or expertise to share is eligible to join as a Shell Core. Joining as a Full Core depends on your institution’s contract status with iLab. Currently, MRA holds a contract that serves Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Researchers from academia and industry can use i-Net to find research instrumentation and expertise available in Mississippi.

Yes. While your equipment is listed in the directory for researchers to find, you retain full control over onboarding, training, and access approval for your core. No one can reserve time or request services without your permission.

i-Net will use the standard iLab template for a multi-institutional search portal:

• Arizona: https://azcores.ilab.agilent.com/partner_landing/17
• University of Texas System: https://utsystem.corefacilities.org/partner_landing/2
• Mid-Atlantic Shared Services Consortium: https://massc.ilab.agilent.com/partner_landing/12

The designation between Shell and Full depends on whether a core chooses to subscribe to the iLab software. If a core subscribes to iLab, it is designated as a Full Core. If not, it is a Shell Core.

iLab manages equipment schedules, tracks room usage, and records personnel time on projects. It also handles service requests and project workflow. Almost any workflow your lab currently uses can be converted to a virtual service project request in iLab.

You should consider iLab if your core has a high volume of users and/or monthly charges or if you want a coordinated system for scheduling and managing service requests. Even if your lab does not currently charge any fees, having this usage data allows you to evaluate the potential for future cost recovery.

iLab offers a Single Sign-On Integration and a Financial Integration (account number management and automated billing), but these features require your institution to subscribe to them. Once an institution subscribes to them, these integrations are available to all cores at an institution. Ask your Institutional Administrator or the i-Net Coordinator about integrations at your institution.

MRA holds the multi-institutional contract, and institutions pay MRA for their portion. Whether your institution collects payment from your specific core is an internal decision. Please ask your iLab Institutional Administrator or the i-Net Coordinator for your university’s policy. 

Some institutions require each core to pay for its own subscription, while others group “no-charge” labs together under a single college-level subscription. Note that grouping is limited by financial management structure. Labs that charge fees will need to have dedicated financial managers or seamless coordination between multiple managers.

Yes, MRA recommends starting as a Shell Core unless you are sure you need iLab’s help managing your core. 

If you become a Full Core, the iLab contract is year-to-year, so there is no long-term commitment. While many cores realize an increase in revenue collection and/or a decrease in billing costs, you may decide that the subscription does not provide an expected return on investment. In that case, you can let your subscription expire and revert to a Shell Core. 

Conversely, if you start as a Shell Core and decide to become a Full Core later, you can work with the i-Net Coordinator and your institution to decide on timing and payment.

Yes, contact the i-Net Coordinator to schedule an iLab demonstration.

1. Contact your iLab Institutional Administrator or the i-Net Coordinator to start the conversation. 
2. The i-Net Coordinator will work with you to develop search terms for the resources you wish to list on i-Net. 
3. iLab will create your core landing page using the lab information you wish to include. 

This process is designed to be quick and can typically be completed within a few weeks, depending on iLab’s capacity. Once a Shell Core is complete, core managers have access to update their own landing page at any time.

First, contact your iLab Institutional Administrator or the i-Net Coordinator. Your institution must grant you permission to become a Full Core and approve your plan to fund your lab’s core subscription. Once that agreement is in place, the Institutional Administrator and the i-Net Coordinator will work with iLab to determine an implementation schedule and start date.

Implementation as a Full Core will take six weeks from the scheduled start date. Core managers will meet with iLab weekly to complete implementation tasks. The i-Net Coordinator will also attend meetings and be available for assistance as needed. While this initial effort takes a time commitment, the time required to manage a core usually decreases significantly once the system is live, especially when compared to manual management. 

During implementation, an iLab implementation manager will work with you to customize:

• Calendars (for equipment scheduling)
• Service project requests (for custom workflows)
• Invoices (for billing and reporting)
• Core structure and landing page (this landing page will show through to the search portal)

 iLab will also train any core or financial managers on how to navigate iLab and update customizations as needed.