Welcome to Q-CoFa

What is Q-CoFa?

Q-CoFa 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 [1], revealing that 70% scientists could not reproduce published results.

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.

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Q-CoFa recommendations are based on:

• Results of the survey of 275 core facilities about 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

Is Q-CoFa useful for me?

Here you can find out how you are performing in all aspects of research quality in order to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

New role for core facilities?

• Teach and promote good scientific practices
• Scientific gatekeeping of good quality research
• Deliver a quality stamp in the future?

Please contribute

This is a wiki website. Please feel free to share your experience and add your own recommendations. In order to do that you first need to log in. We thank you for your collaboration.