New Laboratory Setup Checklist Template

Start about fourteen weeks before the planned go-live date. The first task names the five people and asks where the lab is and whether a group is moving in from an existing lab; the second asks which specialist hazards the work involves. Each answer adds the tasks or notes it needs, and every due date counts from the go-live date in working days.

• Set up the lab start-up — the institution, the lab and room, the research group, the planned go-live date (which every due date counts from), the country, whether a group is moving in from an existing lab, and the five people; later tasks are assigned from these fields
• Describe the planned work — the research, the processes, the chemicals, gases and equipment it needs, any specialist hazards, and how many people will work in the lab
• Ask the safety office what it needs — who in your institution’s safety office advises on this lab, which risk assessments, approvals and inspections it requires before work starts, and how long each takes
• Set the budget and the timeline — equipment, furniture, building work, services and consumables, with the items that take longest to arrive or install named first
• Draw up the lab layout — benches, fume cupboards, safety cabinets, gas points, sinks, storage, emergency equipment and exit routes, checked against the planned work

Confirm the room can take the planned work before anything is ordered: extraction, gases, water, drainage, power and a route out for every kind of waste.

• Survey the space with facilities — its condition, floor loading, doors and lifts wide enough for large equipment, security, and any building work needed before fit-out
• Confirm ventilation and fume cupboards — the general ventilation, the number and position of fume cupboards and other extraction, and who installs and commissions them
• Confirm gases and cylinder positions — piped gases, where cylinders will stand and how they are restrained, and gas detection or alarms where the risk assessment calls for them
• Confirm water, drainage and power — sinks and pure water, what may go down the drains, the electrical supply and sockets, backup power for freezers and critical equipment, and network points
• Plan the waste routes — chemical, biological, sharps, glass and general waste: where each is collected in the lab and how it leaves the building
• Order the equipment — each item with its supplier, expected delivery, installation needs and whether it needs qualification or calibration before first use

Write the assessments for the work this lab will actually do, and get every approval your safety office named in Phase 1. The biological, radiation and laser tasks appear only when the planned work includes them. Start any approval with a long lead time, such as an HSE consent or a committee that meets monthly, as soon as Phase 1 shows it is needed, and move the go-live date if it will not be in place by its due date.

• Write the chemical risk assessments — for each hazardous substance and process in the planned work: who could be exposed, how, and the controls
• Write the lab’s standard operating procedures — for each hazardous procedure: the controls, the personal protective equipment, the waste and what to do if it goes wrong
• Identify work that needs prior approval — procedures and particularly hazardous substances that your safety office or chemical hygiene plan says need approval or a designated area before work starts
• Get the biological safety approval — the biological risk assessment and the containment agreed with your biological safety officer or committee, and any notification or registration made before work starts
• Get the radiation protection approval — the radiation risk assessment agreed with your radiation protection adviser or radiation safety officer, and the lab covered by the right notification, registration, consent or licence before any radioactive material arrives or X-ray equipment is used
• Get the laser safety approval — the laser risk assessment, the controlled area and the eye protection agreed with your laser safety officer before any laser is switched on
• Get the assessments accepted by the safety office — reviewed against your institution’s own rules, with every comment answered and the date it accepted them recorded

Nothing is used until it is installed, connected and checked. Equipment moved from an old lab is checked in Phase 7.

• Receive and check each delivery — against the order, for damage, with the manuals, certificates and warranties filed
• Install the equipment with its services — power, gas, water, drainage and extraction connected by the supplier or facilities, and heavy or tall items fixed where needed
• Commission the fume cupboards and safety cabinets — each one tested on installation against its design performance, with the commissioning report kept
• Qualify or calibrate equipment before first use — installation and operational checks, or calibration against traceable standards, for each item that needs it
• Add each item to the equipment register — its ID, location, service and calibration due dates, and who may use it
• Set up alarms for freezers and critical equipment — temperature or failure alarms, who is called out of hours, and where samples go if a unit fails

Order only what the first months of work need, store it by hazard, and have the waste containers and the first collection ready before the first experiment.

• Order chemicals and consumables — only what the first months of work need, checked against the planned work and the risk assessments
• Set up chemical storage — flammables cabinets, acids and bases apart, incompatible materials separated, and the quantities kept in the lab low
• Build the chemical inventory — each container with its location, quantity and hazards, and a safety data sheet for each product where people can reach it
• Install the gas cylinders — restrained, labelled and fitted with the right regulators, with full and empty cylinders kept apart
• Set up waste containers and the first collection — a labelled container for each waste stream in the lab, and a collection booked with the waste contractor or your institution’s waste team

Check the emergency equipment works, write down what to do when something goes wrong, and train everyone before the lab opens.

• Check the eyewash stations and safety showers — in place where corrosive materials will be used, flushed and tested, with a routine check set
• Stock the spill kits and first aid kits — spill kits matched to the chemicals and any biological agents, first aid kits, and a named person who restocks them
• Check fire safety in the lab — extinguishers suited to the hazards, alarms that can be heard in the lab, and exits and corridors clear
• Write the lab’s emergency arrangements — spills, exposures, fire, gas leaks and out-of-hours incidents, posted in the lab and shared with emergency responders where your institution requires
• Set up lab notebooks or the ELN and the lab’s records — the notebook or electronic lab notebook rules, and where training records, inspection records and the equipment register are kept
• Give everyone the lab safety induction — exits, alarms, eyewash, showers, spill kits, waste routes and the lab’s rules, with a record for each person
• Train people on the risk assessments and procedures — the hazards, the controls and the procedures each person will use, with the record kept
• Train people on each instrument — a named trainer for each instrument, and a sign-off before anyone uses it alone

Applies only when the first task says a research group is moving in from an existing lab. Chemicals, samples and equipment leave the old lab in a planned order, decontaminated and accounted for.

• Plan the move with both labs — dates, what moves, what is disposed of, who moves hazardous items and samples, and what keeps running in the old lab until the move
• Reduce the chemicals before the move — out-of-date and unwanted chemicals disposed of through the old lab’s waste route, so less has to move
• Decontaminate equipment before it is moved — each item cleaned and decontaminated, with a signed record, before anyone moves it
• Move chemicals, samples and hazardous items — packed by hazard, moved by trained staff or a specialist carrier on the route your safety office agrees, and checked in at the new lab
• Check moved equipment before use — installed, connected and checked or recalibrated after the move, with any fume cupboard or safety cabinet moved from the old lab tested again once it is installed, and added to the equipment register

The approver’s decision halts the checklist: nothing after it can be completed until the lab is approved as ready for work. The safety office’s sign-off comes first.

• Walk the lab with the safety contact — every area checked against the layout, the assessments and this checklist, with each snag listed
• Fix the snags — each one closed by its owner, or agreed with the approver as a condition of go-live
• Record the safety office’s sign-off — the inspection or review your institution requires before a new lab opens, its outcome and any conditions
• Approve the lab as ready for work — the approver checks the safety office’s sign-off is recorded, the approvals are in place and people are trained, and records the decision before the first experiments
• Fix what stopped go-live — each gap the approver listed fixed and checked, then a fresh decision from the approver
• Meet the conditions set at go-live — each condition met by the date the approver set, with the evidence, and the approver told

Open the lab to the trained people, supervise the first runs, set the routine checks, and review the lab after a month. The old lab is decommissioned and handed back only after the new one is open.

• Open the lab to the trained people — access changed from escorted to the named list of people who have been inducted and trained, and the opening date recorded
• Run the first experiments under supervision — the first run of each hazardous procedure with the principal investigator or an experienced person present, and any changes written into the procedure
• Set the routine checks — eyewash flushing, fume cupboard checks, alarm tests, stock and waste checks, each with an owner and a schedule
• Decommission the old lab — emptied, cleaned and decontaminated, waste removed, and checked by the safety office before it is handed back
• Hand back the old space — keys and access cards returned, hazard signs removed, and the space released to facilities with the decommissioning record
• Review the lab after its first month — what worked, near misses and changes to the work, with the risk assessments and procedures updated where needed