Frequently Asked Questions

The space inventory occurs prior to the functionalization of the space during the space survey. During the inventory portion of the survey, the primary use codes of the space are checked for accuracy to ensure research space is accounted for and assigned to be surveyed. For example, if a space was converted to a research lab, it’s primary use code would need to be updated to reflect this change.

Yes, leased space should be part of this space inventory activity.  This will help ensure accurate inventory records no matter how it is funded. 

Primary use (room type) codes are important because those related to research will be the primary focus of the upcoming Space Survey and will require functionalization. (Currently planned for January to April 2023).

Occupants are required for research space.  Specifically primary use/room types: 250 research labs, 261 computational labs, 262 BL2 wet labs and 264 specialized wet labs.  

Occupants do not need to be assigned to service or administrative areas.   

This is only required for departments participating in the Space Survey:

The occupant's employee ID (EID) or name should be assigned to the research related space. This data will be imported into WebSpace for the Space Survey which will occur January to April 2023.  

Primary use should be changed when 50% or more of the time can be attributable to sponsored research activities.  When changing the Primary Use from 310 to 261, please be sure to update the Occupants as well.  

Rooms below 50% sponsored research activity should remain with office designation and will be functionalized based on department’s salary and wages (joint use); occupants do not need to be updated. 

255 if the server or room housing data and/or backup systems is being used for organized research.  

710, 711 or 715, if being utilized for more general IT-hosted applications. 

They should be listed as an occupant in each lab/space they occupied during the fiscal year (7/1/2022-6/30/2023), wherever they are doing rotation work for a reasonable length of time (e.g., one quarter or pay period).

This step is only required for those deparments participating in the Space Survey:

Yes, include research staff as an occupant in all the research related spaces they occupy.

This is only required for those departments participating in the Space Survey:

Space Manager will allow you to assign a person from another department as a room occupant using their EID or name.  

This step only required for those departments participating in the Space Survey.

• For Space Manager, vacant space should have no PI allocation and no occupants listed
• Within WebSpace, the PI should be marked as “Vacant” PI. 

Yes, if before 11/30/22 in Space Manager. 

Updates to the space inventory information can be made in WebSpace beginning in January 2023.

Those definitions can be found on these websites: https://finance.uw.edu/maa/primary-use. 

and https://maps.uw.edu/geosims/room-type-definitions.html (along with Excel file download). 

This depends upon how your college decides to handle. For some, the Dean’s office would need to add or remove rooms from a department’s inventory.  For others, you may coordinate with your CAP Account Manager to add/remove space from your department room inventory. Discuss with your department to understand the process expected. 

Shared Space is defined in one of two ways: 

1. Research lab shared by multiple PIs/multiple departments (room types 250, 260, 261, 262, 264) .  Occupants need to be assigned  

2. Service rooms with shared equipment/instrument/cold/freezer/microscope (room type 255).  Occupants do not need to be assigned  

For all 255 rooms (research service labs):

• There is no need to add PI or occupants
• If there are old occupants in the space already, there is no need to delete them
• As well, it does not matter what % the PI% in Space Manager

For the base year, getting the rooms identified correctly as 255 is the main goal. 

Departments can clean up PI and occupants per their local practices.

Fully remote employees (100%) should be excluded from the survey and not listed as occupants in any space.  

Hybrid remote employees (<100%) should be assigned as occupant even if they are only in a day a week and treated as if they are on site.  

The room type should be coded as 300s if funded more than 50% from gifts and endowments.  

If <50% of their time is spent in the office on sponsored research, the room type should be coded as 312. 

Typically, the amount of time spent on administrative activity by the chair would make it a 312 unless they have separate office space where their research activities take place away from their leadership responsibilities.  

No, as Space Manager only allows UW employees to be added as occupants. 

However, unpaid volunteers will need to be added in WebSpace for the survey functionalization so identifying them during the inventory process will be helpful.

If the employee is paid primarily by start-up funds or department research, the room type should be administrative (e.g., 312, 316). 

But if they are paid by NIH or grant sponsored, the room type should be assigned as research (e.g., 261).

Room type 255, Research Laboratory Service.

Room type describes the primary use of a room (e.g., classroom, computation dry lab, faculty office)   

https://maps.uw.edu/geosims/room-type-definitions.html 

Room function describes the activity taking place in the space (e.g., instruction, organized research, joint use) 

https://finance.uw.edu/maa/fa-rate-proposal/space-survey/functional-use-definitions 

Each room can have only one room type or primary use.  Each room can have multiple room functions. 

CAP (Capital Architecture + Planning) Account Managers, as noted on this website: https://facilities.uw.edu/planning/account-managers