Laboratory Management

In this article, we provide a list of the best of those resources. New PIs need a mix of scientific, fundraising, and management skills to launch their laboratories.

Of course, the ability of people to carry out their projects efficiently will depend on the conditions you create in the laboratory.

Freelance science writer Siri Carpenter provides further advice on how researchers need financial knowledge and a businesslike attitude to be successful in "Toward a Philosophy of Resource Management.” In our "Special Feature: Grant Writing for Tight Times,” we gave tips on how to make it into the winners’ list. Brown also went into the details of how to prepare the budget for your first big grant and manage it once you’ve got the funds, in "Preparing and Managing Your First Lab Budget: Finance 101 for New Investigators.” Also available on Careers is the National Institutes of Health R01 Toolkit, advice on how to submit your best possible NIH R01 application, a guide to National Science Foundation success, and tips from jury members on how to get a Starting Grant from the European Research Council.

Project managers may work in biotech companies, pharma companies, and contract research organizations, among many other places.

Whatever the setting, experience is important, says Meenakshi Kashyap, a former biotechnology scientist at an IT and bioinformatics consulting and outsourcing company.

Levine in "Making the Leap to Independence.” Among the mistakes new PIs make are five that are particularly common. Inc., Brooke Allen also explains how to find hidden talent in a dysfunctional job market. A recent AAAS/ Custom Publishing Office special feature describes how some PIs are mastering the "human elements" of running a lab.

Kathy Barker, author of the definitive guide to managing an academic laboratory, gives advice on how to avoid those mistakes in "At the Helm: Avoiding Management Mistakes.” There's more advice in "Special Feature: Laboratory Management.” One of the first tasks for a new faculty member is to fill his or her empty lab with people. Head of the Quantitative Trading Group at Maple Securities U. And while most scientists perpetuate the management style of their mentors, for good or bad, professional training can help you break that cycle, freelance science writer Karyn Hede writes in "Managing Scientists.” But there are other ways to learn.Lab safety and ethics are two of the most important aspects of running a lab, but too often they receive even less attention than those other basic lab-management skills. Carelessness can have tragic consequences for people and their families, Benderly reports here and here.Freelance writer Tom Hollon offers tips on making your new lab safe and compliant with your institution's guidelines.A person with an interest in this kind of career could also become a technical manager, or go for a management consulting career, seeking a job with a company like Mc Kinsey & Co., for example.Another avenue for management work is professional societies and funding bodies, where program officers and directors oversee research portfolios. A search for “management” yields around 1240 results, "project management” 790, "budget” 710, "financial planning” 450, "hire” 1095, "ethics” 260, "leadership” 420, and "lab safety” 190.Or—as Kerstin Nyberg explains—running one of the collaboration programs funded by the European Commission. Such careers may require extra training, such as an MBA degree. There's much more in our special feature on research integrity.Then you may want to consider a career in research management and administration.Andrew Hagan shared his experience pursuing an international MBA program for scientists and engineers at the College of Engineers in Paris. Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA), a structured quality improvement program, teaches laboratory managers how to implement practical quality management systems in resource-limited settings using available resources.