Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy New Year and for a
significant increase in grant funding!

 I'm trying to do a cost comparison of implementing our own IACUC vs.
entering into an agreement with the local medical school to form a joint
IACUC.  We are a comprehensive university of approximately 11,000 students
and 525 roster faculty with an annual sponsored programs volume of about $4
million.  We have three full-time sponsored programs staff (director, grants
administrator, and information and technology coordinator plus a half-time
work-study student--note that we do not have a departmental secretary nor do
we have general secretarial services like typing and filing available
elsewhere).  I would estimate that we would have no more that 10 protocols
per year from Biology and Psychology departments.  I don't anticipate cats,
dogs, or primates.  We probably will have birds, fish, amphibians, and
rodents.  Some protocols will be for field studies.

 Since I don't have much experience with IACUCs, I don't know what
amount of time Sponsored Programs staff would have to spend to provide full
support to our own IACUC.  By full support, I mean scheduling meetings,
recording minutes, doing correspondence, record-keeping, reporting,
scheduling facility inspections, attending facility inspections, drafting
policies and procedures, drafting protocol application forms, scheduling
animal care staff training, and other such administrative duties.

 If you are a relatively comparable institution, would you please
estimate the average number of person-hours or person-days spent by
Sponsored Programs staff each month on activities related to the animal care
and use program and/or the IACUC?  If possible, please indicate your annual
sponsored programs volume, the number of sponsored programs staff, student
enrollment, number of roster faculty, and the average number of protocols
reviewed per month or per year.  Please note if your support functions are
significantly different from the ones noted above.  Also, if possible,
please estimate the average number of person-hours or person-days that you
think your IACUC Chair and IACUC members spend on animal matters.

 Although I don't think information from large research institutions
or biomedical institutions will be terribly helpful since we don't have the
same economies of scale, if you are from one of these types of institutions,
please feel free to give me any advice about pros and cons of doing a joint
IACUC anyway.  Right now, I'm leaning toward a "trial marriage," but I have
a few professors who fear being "taken over" or having a bunch of clinicians
review field research that they "don't understand."  I haven't discovered
any basis for these fears other than accounts from these professors'
colleagues that sound more like fish stories than reality.  The two
institutions' sponsored programs offices have an excellent working
relationship and some of our faculty collaborate with their faculty.

 As always, thanks for the input.

Barbara H. Gray                         Telephone:  803-953-5673
Director of Sponsored Programs          FAX:        803-953-6577
College of Charleston                   e-mail:     xxxxxx@cofc.edu
66 George Street
Charleston, South Carolina  29424