Page,
In general, Federal rules (OMB A-21) require core facilities to
use cost recovery for determining their rates. For some equipment it’s
easy to calculate, for other services it’s a royal pain in the backside.
It costs about $50,000 per year to cover the costs for our confocal core
facility (service contract, 25% of my salary and a few miscellaneous
expenses). We look at the total number of hours of use in a year and
calculate the rates based on that information. The rules allow us to have
a 60 day reserve as a financial buffer, but not any more than that. If we
start making too much money, the rates need to go down. This gets more
complicated in the histology lab I also supervise. Determining how much
labor, disposables, reagents, etc go into a particular test is VERY
tedious. I’m sure it would be similar with a TEM lab.
I guess what I’m saying is although knowing what other people
charge can be useful, each facility is required to justify their own rates
using their own expenses & use.
Since our rates are a matter of public record:
Our confocal core’s rates are online at: http://www.usif.arizona.edu/ahsc-imaging/confocal.html
The EM facility’s rates are here: http://www.usif.arizona.edu/ahsc-imaging/em.html
Doug
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Douglas W. Cromey, M.S. - Assistant Scientific Investigator
Dept. of Cell Biology & Anatomy, University of Arizona
1501 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724-5044 USA
office: AHSC
4212 email: [hidden email]
voice: 520-626-2824
fax: 520-626-2097
http://swehsc.pharmacy.arizona.edu/exppath/
Home of: "Microscopy and Imaging Resources on the WWW"
From: Confocal Microscopy
List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Debra Baluch
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:37 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Core Lab User Fee Comparison
Does
anyone know of a good website that lists a comparison of user fees for core
facilities? We have light and electron microscope systems in our
facility. We would like to get in the habit of periodically checking our
rates against other similar facilities to make sure we are charging fare and
competitive rates. I looked through the archives and only found a posting for a
fee comparison in 1996. I think the average rates may have changed since then??
Thanks
for your suggestions,
ASU/School
of Life Sciences
WM
Keck Bioimaging Facility
Locked
