Introduction and Definitions

DICAM consists of subject areas and Laboratories. The latter are understood as laboratories for both basic and applied research, equipped with scientific equipment and/or sets of instruments, as well as knowledge-intensive resources, data archives, and above all, teaching and technical staff. Laboratories are constantly evolving and operate both individually and in aggregate.

Production Units are defined as Departments, Research Centers, Schools, and Administrative Structures with spending power, management power, and space. Laboratories, classrooms, and service spaces (stairs, bathrooms parking, etc.) are the responsibility of the same Production Unit. Each Production Unit is in charge of a Production Unit Manager.

Laboratories are defined as places or environments where teaching, research, or service activities are carried out, involving the use of machines, apparatus and work equipment, facilities, prototypes, or other technical means, or the use of chemical, physical, or biological agents. Laboratories are considered the environments, including those outside the built-up area, where the above activities take place.

Each Laboratory is assigned to a Laboratory Manager appointed by the Director of the Department to which the Laboratory belongs.
Each workplace is organized according to an organizational chart at the top of which is the Laboratory Manager, who heads the technicians and safety officers. Access to laboratories is not free but regulated by the Laboratory Manager who is accountable for the activities and safety of workers.

Workers are all those who in various capacities have access to the laboratory: the teaching and research staff,

1. managers and technical and administrative staff employed by the University;
2. non-organically structured personnel and those of contracted entities, both public and private, who carry out activities at the University's facilities, unless otherwise determined by agreement;
3. students of university courses, doctoral students, postgraduates, research grant holders, trainees, scholarship holders, and their equivalents, when they attend teaching, research or service laboratories or when, due to the activity specifically carried out, they are exposed to risks identified in the Risk Assessment Document. 

The laboratory regulations, defined by the Laboratory and/or Activity Manager must be posted and available for consultation in each laboratory and must be made known to anyone entering for the first time, in addition to the administration of safety information (e.g., risk factors, behaviors to be adopted and PPE). 

According to the University Regulations on Occupational Health and Safety, issued by DR No. 574 on Oct. 5, 2017, it is defined as:

Head of Teaching and/or Experimental Laboratory the person who coordinates and supervises the performance of teaching, research, or service activities involving the use of machines, apparatus and work equipment, facilities, prototypes or other technical means, or chemical, physical or biological agents. 

When laboratories are large there are also Activity Managers, who report to the Laboratory Manager. Responsible for teaching activity is the holder of the teaching identified as such by an order of the Department Director. 

The Head of Research Activity is defined as:
a) the individual who individually or as a group coordinator is the Scientific Responsible for a research activity identified as such by a measure* of the Department Director or the Research Center of affiliation; 
b) the thesis supervisor who involves* the performance of activities in the laboratories of the Department or at external locations. 

*laboratory research activity, as well as the identification of the Head of Research Activity, cannot be an obligation for the department but is a decision of the Board after hearing the views of the parties.

ReLabs

Within DICAM, multiple research areas and related laboratories can be identified, which, until now, have operated more or less unrelated and independently. 

Collaboration among the members of the various laboratories can benefit from an infrastructure within DICAM that can amalgamate knowledge, know-how, and machinery to facilitate research synergistically and efficiently. With this purpose and as an example of good practice, DICAM seeks to propose a network of internal laboratories, under the acronym ReLABs. 

Underlying this project is a principle of sharing/cooperation, and it should be remembered that DICAM laboratories are research laboratories and not mere fee-for-service laboratories. A department is first and foremost a place for sharing ideas and, afterward also for sharing measures (with costs and contributions to be carefully evaluated). 

There are many benefits to be gained as the network allows for: 

• bring together and integrate research laboratories to promote their coordinated use; 
• enable researchers to make optimal use of harmonized research infrastructures; 
• the demands of future research projects, Industry, and Utilities; 
• reduce maintenance and personnel costs that will be increasingly critical over time.

The summary list of DICAM's laboratories indicating the laboratory manager, the person in charge of the activity, the contact person to interface with in case of need, and the official laboratory email where to send all requests is available here.

Re-Labs and Safety

The goal is to provide valid organizational charts for safety management within the various laboratories and to give guidance on the common use of resources.

Organizational chart documents for safety management related to individual Labs can be downloaded from the download box (frame dx).

How to join the ReLabs circuit

A researcher who has a justified need to carry out activities at other laboratories may contact the contact person directly on the Laboratory account listed in the organization chart file found in the download box to explain the requirements. PhD students will also be able to benefit from the collaboration of others related to DICAM, as long as their request is under the responsibility of the professor/researcher supervising their thesis work. 
The use of Laboratory accounts, instead of personal accounts, is prodromal to the development of a possible ticket system because it allows the reporting of the activity actually carried out by researchers and technical staff, to avoid abuses, to identify responsibilities and needs for the purchase, use and maintenance of instrumentation.