This week we're talking all things "open" on the Higher Education Network: open access, OpenCourseWare, open data, open source. And with cost-cutting procurement a priority for university vice-chancellors and heads of finance, database from Equipment.data.ac.uk seems to have come at the right time for them too.

Research Councils UK (RCUK) recommends "to encourage more intensive use of existing assets". In other words, why pay for a sputter system when you can borrow someone else's?

Universities are also being asked to share more and more of their data with peers. So when the Open Data Institute at the University of Southampton began exploring the kind of information that might be worth making available, research equipment – more tangible than grant application figures perhaps – came high on their list.

This database is not just for academics, but for funders and suppliers too. RCUK's need to keep a check on university shopping lists. Meanwhile, manufacturers are chasing to keep up with researchers' need for increasingly high-specification instruments, and this information could help them track demand. Reports the Guardian