Hi Liz

Our situation is quite different to yours in that our instrument is almost
entirely used within our institute. Usage averages about 40% of available normal
working hours but varies widely from month to month. We have 3 core users and
another 2-3 occasional users. The vast bulk of the work is funded from PGSF or
NSOF with perhaps some very small industry funding. We have no policy on
charging for instrument use - I believe most commercial jobs would be quoted on
estimated value of the work rather than on time or instrument cost. Maintenance
is funded as an overhead spread across projects based on time usage which we
record. Consumables are funded by individual projects/users. If we did have
major external users like you do, then I believe we would charge for instrument
time, operator time if needed, training, and data analysis, prints and slides
etc; or the estimated value of the work, whichever is greater. The later
probably applies more to industrial type work where we find generally that a
client will have a particular budget in mind. As far as my time is concerned I
work for 3-4 different projects which funds time spent using the instrument.
Maintenance time is an overhead (almost negligible).

Hope that helps.
Regards

Lloyd Donaldson
Forest Research, Rotorua, New Zealand




Liz Nickless <[log in to unmask]> on 10/05/2000 14:05:53

Please respond to Confocal Microscopy List <[log in to unmask]>

To:   [log in to unmask]
cc:    (bcc: Lloyd Donaldson/NZ Forest Research Institute/NZ)

Subject:  re confocal charging.



Hello to everyone,

We have a Confocal Facility within our University that was jointly setup by
various Research Institutes within our region including our own University.
We are under increasing pressure to enlarge our revenue to the point of
becoming fully user pays, therefore fully funding our Facility. At the
moment we do very well and have the ability so far to cover all aspects of
maintenance and computer and software upgrades and ongoing development in
equipment. The only expense we do not cover is the salary portion of the
support staff for the facility. This is paid for by the University.

I would very much appreciate some feedback from managers of other facilities
or even users on pricing structures for your facility ie. how much and for
what eg.scanning time, image analysis, training etc.
I would also be interested in amounts of usage ie. is your unit used 100% of
the time or more or less and how many staff support your facility. If there
are any Confocal facilities out there that fully fund themselves or not??

This information would be very useful to us to compare our setup to see if
we have got the equation right or not.

Any information would be much appreciated.


Thankyou in advance

Liz Nickless
Confocal Microscope Facility
Massey University
New Zealand