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If you try to cover your operational costs based on user fees alone, you
may find that your hourly rates will be very steep and will scare your
users away. In the past we have got departmental and university support
for our operation and we charge fees for partial recovery of the costs.
We charge $30/hr for independent use plus $40/hr for technical
assistance. Independent users are required to get training before being
authorized to work alone, we charge $210 for a 3 hrs basic training
program aimed to allow the users to properly operate the scope avoiding
damage to the system while getting fairly good images. You cannot create
an expert in 3 hrs but our microscopes have been spared so far from
suffering due to human error.

In the end we only recover about 40% of our costs (salaries, maintenance
contract, supplies, etc.) and users complain that our rates are too
high.   

Leoncio A. Vergara MD
Director
Optical Imaging Lab. (OIL)
Assistant Professor 
Dept. of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)
Galveston, Texas 77555
phone: 409-772-3970
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Peter Carroll
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 11:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: LSM 510 Fees:

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Hi,

Our facility has just installed a LSM 510, and we're trying to determine

a fee schedule for it. I thought a good start might be to get an idea of

what other facilities, on average, charge per hour for assisted use on 
this equipment, ergo, what the going rate is in an academic setting.

Thanks for any feedback,
Peter