{"schema_version":1,"research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp03_external48_20260801","source_assessment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp03_opportunity320_20260801","cell_id":"deadweight_loss_reduction__chemistry_materials","selection_stratum":"DEPLOYABLE_PRIORITY","search_queries":["shared research instrument facility scheduling waitlist cancellations unused time core facility study","shared instrument facility reservation waitlist automatic scheduling iLab official","NMR facility scheduling cancellation waitlist instrument reservation quota policy","core facilities survey instrument utilization scheduling access official report","Facility Online Manager FOM waitlist instrument reservation official","BookitLab instrument waitlist reservation official documentation","NMR facility waiting list reservation cancellation instrument","electron microscopy core facility waitlist instrument reservation cancellation","XRD facility waitlist reservation instrument","materials characterization facility cancellation available slot waiting list","site:bls.gov/oes/2025/may software developers annual mean wage"],"sources":[{"source_id":"S1","title":"Booking","publisher":"University of Michigan, Materials Science and Engineering","url":"https://mse.engin.umich.edu/research/booking","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","publication_date":"undated; page footer © 2026","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["The materials-characterization facility requires instrument training before access.","The facility maintains a waiting list when schedules are full and asks users who cancel late or finish early to notify that list.","Unclaimed bookings may be taken by other users after 30 minutes.","Priority access is reserved for undergraduate courses, demonstrating that reallocation can coexist with protected access.","Posted instrument rates range from $38.45 to $125 per hour."]},{"source_id":"S2","title":"Booking: Inorganic Materials Characterisation Facility","publisher":"University of Oxford Department of Chemistry","url":"https://imc.web.ox.ac.uk/booking-rules","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","publication_date":"undated","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["The SQUID magnetometers are described as highly subscribed for most of the year.","Days are allocated to research groups to provide equitable access.","Other groups may provisionally request an allocated day four days before use, and the day transfers if the original group does not reclaim it by the prior-day deadline.","The policy encourages users to expose unused portions of their measurement days."]},{"source_id":"S3","title":"Scheduling","publisher":"University of Pittsburgh Magnetic Resonance Research Center","url":"https://www.sharedfacilities.pitt.edu/mrrc/users/scheduling","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","publication_date":"undated","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["The center combines fixed group slots with on-demand use of unused fixed slots and cancellations.","Fixed slots without required confirmation become available to all users five days before use.","Groups may borrow or trade fixed slots, subject to center processing.","Usage thresholds can increase or reduce fixed-slot allocations.","Requests require participant readiness and staff validation, illustrating reallocation with eligibility and safety gates."]},{"source_id":"S4","title":"Enabling Cancellation Notifications","publisher":"Agilent iLab Help","url":"https://help.ilab.agilent.com/37446-managing-schedule-equipment/enabling-cancellation-notifications","source_class":"OFFICIAL_PRODUCT_DOCUMENTATION","publication_date":"undated","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["Core administrators can enable cancellation notifications per equipment calendar.","Qualified customers can receive canceled-slot alerts and attempt to book the released time.","Existing training, permission, access, and approval requirements continue to govern eligibility."]},{"source_id":"S5","title":"Lab Equipment Scheduling Software","publisher":"BookitLab","url":"https://bookit-lab.com/solution/lab-equipment-scheduling","source_class":"COMMERCIAL_FIRST_PARTY","publication_date":"undated","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["The product advertises automated waitlists, automatic slot offers, waitlist priority rules, and availability notifications.","It supports automated training checks, role- and training-based access, and monitored usage.","It reports utilization, reservations, availability, downtime, and service demand.","The vendor describes configurable no-code workflows and go-live measured in weeks."]},{"source_id":"S6","title":"National Employment and Wage Data by Occupation, May 2025","publisher":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics","url":"https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm","source_class":"GOVERNMENT_OR_REGULATOR","publication_date":"2026-05-15","accessed_at":"2026-08-02","claims_supported":["The May 2025 national mean wage for software developers was $148,100 annually, providing a labor-cost anchor for integration work.","The published occupational wage table supports using broad rather than point cost estimates for analyst, software, and administrative labor."]}],"problem_evidence":{"support":"MODERATE","rationale":"Official materials-facility policies document full schedules with waitlisted demand, late cancellations, early finishes, unclaimed bookings, highly subscribed instruments, and group-allocated time that can be released to others. This verifies that the proposed allocation pattern can occur in the target domain, but no source quantifies how often qualified, compatible demand and genuinely refillable idle time coexist or how much scientific output is lost.","source_ids":["S1","S2"]},"stakeholder_evidence":{"support":"STRONG","rationale":"Multiple facilities have already instituted waiting lists, cancellation notifications, transferable group allocations, borrowing, or released-slot rules, and commercial scheduling systems sell automated versions. This is strong revealed institutional demand for the general capability, although it does not establish demand for another new product or for the proposed evaluation bundle.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S4","S5"]},"prior_art":{"proximity":"ESTABLISHED_PRACTICE","closest_analogues":[{"name":"University of Oxford SQUID allocated-day transfer","similarity":"Research groups receive preferential days; unused allocated time becomes provisionally requestable by other groups four days before use and transfers after a deadline.","remaining_difference":"The documented process is provisional and partly manual; it does not report a rolling compatibility-ranked waitlist or comparative effects on valid measurements, setup losses, staff workload, and protected-access outcomes.","source_ids":["S2"]},{"name":"University of Michigan materials-characterization waiting list and reclaim rule","similarity":"A materials-characterization facility has qualified access, protected course priority, a waitlist for full schedules, release notifications, and reassignment of unclaimed reservations.","remaining_difference":"It principally handles cancellations, early finishes, and no-shows rather than early transfer of fixed laboratory quotas, and it publishes no controlled outcome evaluation.","source_ids":["S1"]},{"name":"University of Pittsburgh fixed-slot release and on-demand reassignment","similarity":"Fixed group allocations are opened five days before use when unconfirmed; other groups may request unused or canceled time, borrow slots, or trade them under validation rules.","remaining_difference":"This is an MRI rather than chemistry/materials facility, and no evidence reports quality-valid throughput or equity effects against a fixed-quota counterfactual.","source_ids":["S3"]},{"name":"BookitLab automated prioritized waitlist","similarity":"The commercial system offers automatic slot offers, priority rules, notifications, training checks, access controls, and utilization reporting.","remaining_difference":"First-party feature documentation does not establish effects, identify a fixed-quota counterfactual, or specify the candidate's complete quality, setup, workload, gaming, and protected-access evaluation bundle.","source_ids":["S5"]}],"distinctive_claim_remaining":"The slot-transfer mechanism itself is not distinctive. The remaining testable contribution is a prespecified, target-facility evaluation of early transfer specifically for otherwise forfeitable group allocations, comparing quality-valid measurements and wait time while jointly bounding setup losses, staff workload, safety, gaming, and protected access.","confidence":"HIGH"},"implementation_evidence":{"support":"STRONG","rationale":"Universities already operate manual and scheduler-mediated variants, while current products support notifications, automated prioritized waitlists, training checks, access controls, audit data, and utilization reporting. Implementation is therefore technically credible; reliable representation of sample readiness and setup compatibility remains facility-specific.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S4","S5"]},"scores":{"meaningful_impact":{"score":3,"rationale":"The sources verify scarce, highly subscribed instruments, waiting lists, and concern about released or wasted bookings, but do not quantify recoverable hours, wait-time reductions, sample aging, or added scientific output.","source_ids":["S1","S2"]},"stakeholder_pull":{"score":4,"rationale":"Several facilities have enacted related rules and commercial suppliers provide the functions, showing substantial revealed pull. Demand for the candidate as a novel intervention is weaker because close substitutes already exist.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S4","S5"]},"incremental_advantage":{"score":3,"rationale":"For a facility still using non-transferable quotas, the change directly exposes otherwise forfeitable time to qualified demand. No comparative evidence shows the size of the gain after switching, setup, quality, or administrative costs.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3"]},"distinctiveness_plausibility":{"score":1,"rationale":"Early transfer of group allocations, waiting-list reassignment, cancellation alerts, and prioritized automatic slot offers are all documented practices or products. Only the proposed evaluation and safeguard bundle remains potentially distinctive.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S4","S5"]},"technical_implementability":{"score":5,"rationale":"Close manual and automated implementations already operate, including eligibility controls, release deadlines, notifications, priority rules, access enforcement, and utilization reporting.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S4","S5"]},"adoption_authority_feasibility":{"score":4,"rationale":"Facility managers, oversight bodies, and core administrators demonstrably set allocation, release, eligibility, and notification rules. A target institution's grant and equitable-access obligations would still require local review.","source_ids":["S2","S3","S4"]},"evidence_readiness":{"score":3,"rationale":"Commercial systems can track reservations, availability, usage, downtime, and demand, but the sources do not show that contemporaneous sample readiness, setup compatibility, quality-valid completion, or reasons for idle time are routinely captured.","source_ids":["S3","S5"]},"safety_net_benefit":{"score":4,"rationale":"Existing implementations preserve instrument training and permission checks and can protect course or group access. The candidate's explicit quality, workload, gaming, and rollback thresholds would add value, but their effectiveness is untested.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S4","S5"]},"scalability":{"score":4,"rationale":"Comparable practices span materials characterization, magnetometry, microscopy, spectroscopy, diffraction, and MRI, and commercial systems are designed for multiple resources. Instrument-specific setup, staffing, and access rules prevent frictionless standardization.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S5"]}},"score_confidence":"MODERATE","costs":{"first_evidence":{"band_2026_usd":"10K_TO_50K","scope":"A retrospective audit of one instrument over 12 months, including analyst labor, facility-staff classification of downtime and setup compatibility, reconstruction of qualified demand, data governance, prespecification, and an evaluation report; no live scheduling change.","confidence":"MODERATE","assumptions":["Reservation, cancellation, access, usage, and downtime exports already exist.","Approximately one to three staff-months are distributed among an analyst, facility staff, and governance reviewers.","No new hardware, clinical review, or custom production software is required.","The range is resource-equivalent and informed by federal occupational wage data rather than a vendor quote."],"source_ids":["S3","S5","S6"]},"initial_deployment_startup":{"band_2026_usd":"10K_TO_50K","scope":"Configuration of a one-instrument, expiring shadow or pilot workflow, including eligibility rules, priority safeguards, forms, notifications, staff training, data protection, monitoring definitions, and rollback documentation.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["The facility already uses a configurable scheduler or can operate a small manual workflow.","No-code configuration and existing access controls avoid major software development.","Software license pricing is not public and may be an existing institutional cost.","The range includes facility, analyst, IT, safety, equity-review, and evaluation labor."],"source_ids":["S2","S4","S5","S6"]},"operational_launch":{"band_2026_usd":"50K_TO_250K","scope":"Facility-wide launch across several instruments with instrument-specific compatibility logic, integrations, policy and compliance review, user communications, training, dashboards, evaluation, change management, and contingency support; excludes purchasing instruments.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["One institution and one shared facility are in scope.","Some custom integration or software-developer effort is needed, but not a scheduler replacement.","Commercial automation, access control, and reporting features are available.","The upper portion allows roughly a staff-year equivalent distributed across technical, analytical, facility, governance, and coordination roles."],"source_ids":["S4","S5","S6"]},"annual_recurring":{"band_2026_usd":"10K_TO_50K","scope":"Ongoing software support, exception and waitlist administration, readiness verification, equity and quality monitoring, gaming review, reporting, user support, data retention, and annual policy reassessment for one facility.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["Automation handles routine offers and notifications.","Recurring work remains a minority allocation of existing analyst, administrator, IT, and facility-manager roles.","Safety screening and instrument maintenance remain baseline facility costs.","High exception or gaming rates could move recurring costs into the next band."],"source_ids":["S4","S5","S6"]}},"verified_pipeline_gates":{"externally_supported_problem":{"status":"YES","reason":"Official materials-facility sources show highly subscribed instruments, full schedules with waitlists, late cancellations, early finishes, unclaimed time, and group allocations that are deliberately released. Magnitude at any proposed target remains unverified.","source_ids":["S1","S2"]},"externally_credible_adopter_or_authorizer":{"status":"YES","reason":"The cited policies show that facility managers, oversight councils, and core administrators already control allocation, release, validation, priority, and notification rules.","source_ids":["S2","S3","S4"]},"distinct_testable_incremental_claim":{"status":"YES","reason":"Novelty is not supported, but a local incremental claim remains testable: compared with the target facility's fixed-quota rule, earlier gated transfer must increase quality-valid completed measurements or reduce wait time without exceeding prespecified setup, workload, safety, gaming, or protected-access limits.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S3","S5"]},"bounded_next_evidence_step":{"status":"YES","reason":"A one-instrument retrospective audit is non-deployment, can use data types supported by current systems, and can falsify the premise before any scheduling change.","source_ids":["S3","S5"]},"no_unresolved_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"YES","reason":"The next step is record-based and does not change access. Existing practices demonstrate that reassignment can remain restricted to trained, permitted users and preserve priority access; local authorization is still required before any later pilot.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S4","S5"]},"credible_cost_scope_and_range":{"status":"YES","reason":"The scopes distinguish audit, bounded startup, facility launch, and recurring operations; the bands include labor, software, governance, training, coordination, compliance, and evaluation. Confidence remains limited because vendor pricing and target data quality are unknown.","source_ids":["S5","S6"]}},"next_evidence_step":"Within 12 weeks, audit one target instrument's preceding 12 months without changing scheduling. Before viewing outcomes, define usable idle time, minimum refillable duration, setup compatibility, qualification, sample readiness, quality-valid completion, protected-access groups, and a facility-approved minimum worthwhile effect. Compare group-owned reservations that expired or were released late with otherwise similar open-booked periods matched on weekday, duration, staffing, maintenance, and setup class. Reconstruct contemporaneous qualified demand from waitlists and failed or delayed booking requests. Falsify the opportunity if there is no reliable coexistence of refillable rule-blocked time and qualified compatible ready demand, or if the upper bound on recoverable valid measurement-hours is below the prespecified minimum worthwhile effect.","blocking_evidence":["Target-facility prevalence and magnitude of genuinely refillable idle time attributable to allocation or release rules, rather than maintenance, staffing, setup, sample failure, or short gaps.","Reliable contemporaneous records of qualified, compatible, measurement-ready demand, including requests that could not be booked.","Comparative causal evidence that earlier reallocation improves quality-valid completions or wait time after setup losses, staff effort, gaming, and rebound demand.","Locally approved numerical thresholds for protected access, data quality, safety, workload, setup losses, and rollback.","Target-specific software quotes, integration requirements, staff effort, data-governance requirements, and recurring exception rates."],"research_disposition":"KNOWN_PRACTICE_DIFFUSION","world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded search found close operational implementations in materials characterization and other shared research facilities, plus commercial automated waitlist products. Therefore the transferable-slot mechanism should not be described as novel. The search does not establish universal prevalence or exhaust all prior art; the remaining boundary is a target-specific, prespecified comparative evaluation that jointly measures valid throughput, waiting, setup, workload, safety, gaming, and protected access."}