Labshare:  National Support for Laboratory Resource Sharing, is a project backed by the Australian Government's Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund. Labshare is a joint initiative of the Universities amongst the Australian Technology Network - the University of Technology Sydney, Curtin University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, and the University of South Australia.

Labshare's project's mission is to create a nationally shared network of remote laboratories that will result in higher quality labs that support greater student flexibility and improved educational outcomes, improved financial sustainability, enhanced scalability in terms of coping with student loads, and are developed and run by those with the best expertise.

Why the need for Remote Labs?

Laboratories represent a very significant component of overly stretched University budgets and capital investment, and a valuable infrastructure resource, and yet are typically highly under-utilised and seen by students as under-resourced. Despite this, there is almost no sharing of either facilities or design expertise either between institutions or across educational sectors. Further, the current inflexible operation of, and constrained access to, physical laboratories is misaligned with the increasingly complex lifestyle of students and the demands of their time.

• Many University surveys report current laboratory utilisation at much less than 10%
• Percentage of Faculty budgets spent on laboratory infrastructure and personnel is between 15%-40% depending on the program
• Annual expenditure on laboratories is estimated at over $400M per year, with the potential to reduce this up to 50%

Our approach

Traditional engineering laboratories require students to be physically present in order to interact with equipment, limiting both student flexibility and sharing of facilities. The Labshare project leverages current work on remote laboratories, that can be accessed across the Internet, to support the sharing of laboratories across geographically-dispersed institutions. Key outcomes will include the identification of laboratories that are suited to these technologies and development of both a supporting technical architechture and operational models that encourage cross-institutional collaboration and sharing. The result will be large operational cost reductions, sharing of expertise, improved lab quality, and greater access to a wider range of superior laboratories.  

What are the benefits?

•  Reduce Australian Universities’ capital and recurrent expenditure for laboratories.
•  Improve utilisation of at least 10% of laboratories by at least a factor of 4 within 3 years.
• Remote laboratories can inherently provide better support for certain learning objectives and improved outcomes.
• Sharing of laboratories will be accompanied by a resultant sharing of knowledge, expertise, and experience, leading to further improvement in the design of laboratory experience.
• Resultant laboratories are more easily maintained, simpler in terms of financial planning, and accompanied by a raft of more minor benefits, such as the ability to locate the laboratories in physical spaces which otherwise may be unsuitable for student physical access.

Funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations