At the beginning of 2016, a “core” structure was put into effect that organized facility and service units as independent organizational entities from FLI’s research groups. A number of technology platforms (e.g. sequencing, mass spectrometry) grew out of individual methodological requirements for single research groups in the last years but developed into semiautonomous substructures. As consequence of re-focused research activities and the concomitant advent of new research groups at FLI, those units increasingly had to serve many FLI groups and collaborative research efforts in the Jena research area.

To accommodate this development and to increase efficiency as well as transparency for users, facility personnel and for administrative processes, it came natural to re-organize such activities into independent units as “FLI Core Facilities and Services” and to phase out infrastructures considered non-essential for FLI’s research focus (X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy).

FLI’s Core Facilities (CF) are managed by a CF Manager and are each scientifically guided in their activities and development by an FLI Group Leader, as Scientific Supervisor. The animal facilities comprising fish, mouse and transgenesis are run separately, as they involve a more complex organizational structure. Basic Core Services (CS) are directly led by the Head of Core (HC), who in turn is supported by individual CS Managers.

All facilities and services, including animal facilities, have a valuable contribution to FLI’s research articles; e.g. from 2016–2018, to 54% of all peer reviewed research publications.