Search the CONFOCAL archive at
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
Jumping in a bit late with some feedback based on our practices.
Dual fee system seems to work for now. Users pay a flat hourly fee or
an annual fee. Billing and budget issues are a bit headache in any
institution, but our system seems to work pretty well. It encourages
the mastery of the microscope and the attainment of ideal images that
represent the researcher and the university at the level they should be.
We have a few users who just do hourly. This system only works though
on our most heavily used tools (the confocals). The EM systems are pure
hourly, but the type of imagine (relative to confocal) lends itself to
getting in quickly and taking the picture, (vs stack after stack)...
The issue of cost recovery is huge. The MSA listserver had a fantastic
discussion about just this subject a year or many ago. It might be
worth doing some data mining to arm yourself with the facts and
arguments that have been successful at other institutions.
Good luck!
Geoff Williams
Leduc Bioimaging Facility Manager
Brown University
http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/Leduc_Bioimaging_Facility/
-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Lingle, Wilma L. Ph.D.
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core facility user charges
Search the CONFOCAL archive at
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
Vitaly,
Where does the money for your salary, equipment, service agreements,
reagents come from? We have to recoup between 50-90% or our core
research labs cease to exist. It is not a matter of making a profit,
only not losing money so fast.
Regards,
Wilma Lingle
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Vitaly Boyko
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: core facility user charges
Search the CONFOCAL archive at
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
Dear List,
what are you talking about!!!!
Are you making SCIENCE or PROFITS????
No charges. POINT.
Make sure you have time left to think sufficiently and create great
ideas,
thus making scientific discoveries instead of generating tons of rather
regular data that often make little or no sense.
Work on bridging Bilogy and Biophysics, Biophysics and Physics, and so
on.
There is an "explosive" lack of dedicated scientists.
Cheers,
Vitaly,
NCI-Frederick,
301-846-6575
----- Original Message -----
From: "Guy Cox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 3:42 AM
Subject: Re: core facility user charges
> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> Here in Australia granting agencies absolutely will not
> pay annual 'subscriptions' to core facilities - they
> insist on paying only for the hours used. Nevertheless
> most if not all of our major users are on an annual
> subscription basis - which may seem strange.
>
> The point is we offer different annual rates with
> greater discounts per hour according to the amount
> of use (committed). Since all grant projects will
> have budgeted a number of hours of microscope time
> it is easy for them to pick the appropriate
> subscription level. It all appears in the accounts
> as payment for hours of microscope time and the
> granting bodies are happy because they can see that
> the user has obtained the most economical rate.
>
> Guy
>
>
>> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>>
>> Our facility is wanting to move from a pay-per-use for each
instrument
>> billing system to a yearly fee system in which users pay a single fee
for
>> unlimited use of instruments. The problem is that I can't get
accountants
>> here at the University of Minnesota to bend their minds around the
>> "yearly
>> fee" system. The accountants have been trained according to ISO
(Internal
>> Service Organization) accounting protocols that rely upon usage
numbers
>> to
>> obtain the hourly fee. Any deviation from that path seems to fan the
>> flames
>> of fear and terror of granting authorities doing audits.
>>
>> I am aware of two core facilities in the USA that charge according to
the
>> "yearly fee" system. The accountants here might be swayed if only
they
>> could know that other universities (more than 2) also bill according
to a
>> yearly fee system, and, even better, if they knew how this kind of
fee is
>> justified.
>>
>> I don't know if I'm stepping on forbidden ground by bringing up what
>> might
>> be a touchy topic, but I'd sure appreciate knowing either publicly or
>> privately about core facilities that do the "yearly fee" system with
>> comments about how justification is done for the charges. I'd sure
>> appreciate it!
>>
>> Jerry Sedgewick
>> Director, Biomedical Image Processing Lab (BIPL)
>> University of Minnesota
>> 312 Church Street S.E.
>> Minneapolis, MN 55455
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Associate Professor Guy Cox
> Electron Microscope Unit,
> University of Sydney,
> NSW 2006, Australia
>
> Phone:+61 2 9351 3176 Fax:+61 2 9351 7682
> http://www.guycox.net
>
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