Today the M5 group of leading Midlands research-intensive universities are launching a new website which includes a searchable database detailing each piece of equipment that can be shared across all the partner Universities.

The M5 Group of universities - Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Warwick and Aston – was established to boost research collaboration and improve sharing of equipment.

The new searchable online database includes details of the equipment that can be shared, its location and contact details for more information and to make bookings. A costing model has also been agreed. The web site url is www.m5universities.ac.uk

Professor John Heath the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Estates comments:

“We hope that staff across the partner institutions will find this a useful resource. The group are also beginning to explore if they can take such equipment sharing further into jointly procuring maintenance / servicing contacts. This could be very effective if there are clusters of similar equipment across the institutions and could lead to increased efficiencies in terms of use of expensive equipment.”