Tony, these are exactly the points we are working on now with regard to users from
outside the university.

We feel strongly that the internal research and instructional use of the facilities
has absolute priority. External users, frankly, will come last in terms of
scheduling. Since our facilities a located within two specific departments, we are
leaving it to the Depoartment Chairs to schedule facility use.

The rate structure is difficult. We are in the process of assessing anticipated
costs and, in effect, coming up with perhaps a loaded hourly rate. Unfortunately, we
are very likely not to know exactly what an accurate rate should be until we gather
some experience with external users to see, for instance, what kind of staff support
they need etc.

Your suggestion on the NSF/NIH programs is a good one and I will follow up on that.

Steve

Anthony Boccanfuso wrote:

> Jane:
>
> Good question -
>
> I think there are  alot of issues (both financial and non-financial) tied up in
> how these core research facilities operate.
> Steve raised on of them when he mentioned whether or not these will be made
> available to external users.  Let me suggest several other:
>
> 1 - Time management - who determines who has access to these machines?  Does
> everyone in the department (or school or university or system..) have the right
> to access a facility that was purchased with state and/or federal funds? I think
> that this issue is becoming more prevalent especially as there is more
> translational research today than ever and there is a larger pool of retired but
> "active" faculty.
>
> 2 - Financial - are they going to operate as service centers?  As you know, this
> raises a whole host of issues.  Who determines the rate structure ?  Will
> departments be given a certain amount of credit so they can use the machines
> without paying out of their operating budgets?
>
> 3 - Organizational - Who will these units report to?  the VPR?? the dept
> chairs?? the deans??
>
> I think one really good place to look for guidance is the operating procedures
> for NIH and NSF shared instrumentation or core facilities.  These centers (or
> large equipment) must have strong policies and procedures that address these
> types of questions.  Perhaps someone who has one of these at their institution
> could provide you a copy of their P&P.
>
> Tony Boccanfuso
>
> "Youngers, Jane" <xxxxxx@UTHSCSA.EDU> on 02/24/2000 04:28:52 PM
>
> Please respond to Research Administration Discussion List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
> To:   xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
> cc:
> Subject:  Core Facilities
>
> Here's a new topic (I think) for the list.  We are looking at how we might
> better manage our existing core research facilities and develop guidelines
> for establishing new ones.  By core research facility, I mean a facility
> that provides support to many researchers on your campus.  The classic core
> research facility is the animal facility.  But I am not really interested in
> how you finance and manage that.  What I am interested in is how you
> identify, finance, and manage your other core facilities such as protein
> structure cores or DNA sequencing cores or microscopy cores.  Do you have
> definitions of what consistututes a core facility; how are they typically
> managed. how are they typically financed.  Any other guidelines or
> policies/procedures you might have.  Just a website address would even help.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jane
> Jane A. Youngers
> Director, Grants Management
> Mail Code 7828
> University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
> 7703 Floyd Curl Drive
> San Antonio TX  78229-3900
> phone 210.567.2333
> fax 210.567.2344
> email xxxxxx@uthscsa.edu
>
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Stephen Erickson, Director
Office of Research Administration
Boston College
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