Cynthia,

I don't have a great deal of experience with charging for computer use but I
can tell you one thing for sure - it's cumbersome and costly to manage.

The most important thing to deal with is the fact that if you charge the
federal government, you must charge anyone and everyone who uses your
computers.  The government gets the lowest rate so if anyone is not charged,
the lowest rate is zero.

We have been putting some software maintenance costs as direct charges if the
software is specifically used by one group for one area of reasearch.  We also
direct charge computer supplies and replacement costs.  I have successfully
negotiated an amount of direct costs for "computer maintenance" and justified
it as funds for the occasional replacement of hard drives or for the cost of a
computer technician to do some work on an hourly basis such as upgrades.

It would probably be less expensive to try to come up with direct charges than
to charge users for computer use.

Ruth Tallman
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Lehigh University
Phone: 610-758-3024