Dear Colleagues,
I received 6 e-mails concerning about NMR prices. I want to say
thank you, especially for John, Joseph, Charlie, Piotr, Roger and Edward
that shared their prices and experience with me.
1)I've attached a PDF listing of what we charge for NMR usage for our
Facilit
2)We charge $1.50/hour for departmental spectra, $30/hour for other
universities and $60/hour for commercial companies.
3)At UMass we charge per hour with a price varying with each machine.
In house & academic people pay a lot less than outside/industrial
people. We charge enough to break even annually on cryogens, a
part-time assistant, supplies, minor repairs (printers, some probe work,
etc), my travel to
2 meetings a year which totals about $32,000/yr. We have a ceiling of
$5000/yr for each advisor.
Day/hr Night/hr
AVANCE600 $12 $6
DSX300/Infinity+ 12 6
DPX300 10 5
AC200 7 3.50
The bookkeeping is one of my headaches but gradually I am getting it
all on unix accounting. Hope this is useful
4)I asked similar question two months ago but response (attached) was VERY limited.
Our rates for 600 MHz Inova (used exclusively for biomolecular applications) are:
$ 7.50 per hour for UMass user
$ 10 per hour for external academic user
$ 25 per hour for UMass user with facility personnel assistance
5)First make clear it's by the hour. Then give typical price per sample,
like $25 to run it and another $10 if you have to add the solvent and put
it in the NMR tube. Include some standard output in the quote, like a
full spectrum and 2 pages of expansions, with integrals a peak
freq's. Generously include a reasonable amount of interpretation - say 10
minutes on the phone, so you don't get stuck teaching NMR 101.
Write down prices for:
Bench work: sample prep, purification, finding suitable solvent,
etc.
Attended NMR: 1D work, setting up 2D,
Unattended acquisition.
Overnight acquisition maximum.
Plotting and analysis
Consultation or writing reports.
The last I checked (Spectral Data Services, and other commercial NMR
places) it was like $60/hr for 300 MHz, $80/hr for 400. There's a big
jump in magnet cost from 400 to 500 MHz, which could justify a big jump
in price.
First you say it's by the hour, but they want an estimate, and they are
aggrieved if in the end it wasn't right.
So you will quickly learn to quote prices, and to do it accurately or live
within the budget. And to set their expectations on what they will get for it.
Plan carefully before accepting big jobs: look at the structures they are
trying to resolve, determine what question they are trying to answer. Make
predicted spectra, and sketch out what the differences will be. Bill them
for this consulting up front, if you can. But far better to decline the
job before accepting samples.
So the bottom line is you charge whatever you feel like. When I write up
a bill, and I'm listing what I've actually provided them, the numbers
change. More often down than up. It's unfair to charge for learning
methods that should be routine, and hard to justify the first two tries
when the third looked easy. And the hours spent building a relationship
are usually not billable. The best client in my experience is someone who
routinely sends a few samples over every Thursday morning for 1D
analysis. The worst client is someone who wants a structure of one
compound, has a marginal (impure, dilute, or both) sample, and doesn't know
much about NMR.
The place you get killed is on writing reports. So stress at the outset
you will provide an NMR spectrum of the material that they provide
you. Guarantee its quality. And quickly review that NMR does not give a
structure, can at best confirm or contradict a candidate structure, which
should be provided by the client. Do the interpretation in person,
rather than in writing.
6)What we have done here in our lab is to compute all the operating costs
per year, taking into account all the cryogens, electricity, operator
salaries, parts replacement, data tapes or CD's etc. Then total the usage
in hours over that same period.
This will give you the operating cost PER HOUR. You can use that as the
basis for your hourly rates/prices. You can also put a price on / sell
NMR solvents per mL used, as well as NMR tubes.
Best Regards,
Miriam
Received on Thu Dec 12 2002 - 12:19:43 MST