Hi all,
I've gotten good response to the expense/funding/operational model
survey I sent out last week, and I thank those of you who have
responded, but I need more of you to answer to make it statistically
significant. (It's conveniently repeated at the bottom of this email so
you can reply to this one if you misplaced the first.)
I especially need to hear from those of you in private universities and
those of you who are managing facilities with cold/cryo probes, which
require expensive service agreements.
Please respond even if you think your operations "aren't like other NMR
facilities." There's a very broad range of styles out there, and that's
worth characterizing.
I realize this may seem very nosy, but it'll just take ~5-10 minutes of
time, and it should help us all in our future budget negotiations.
Please remember that I only want some simple estimates, not private
details of salaries or total budgets, and the numbers don't have to be
exact - this is an AMMRL survey, not an IRS audit.
One astute colleague inspired me to follow up by asking how much your
institutions charge its PIs' grants for overhead costs. I've already
asked those who responded to me so far, and I've tacked the question on
to the end of the survey (below). This information is not that
sensitive; it is posted for several institutions by the Chronicle of
Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i48/48a01601.htm#overhead
Please note that your overhead is probably between ~45 and 70%. If you
found a number ~30%, that's probably just the "facilities" cost, to
which you add your administrative expenses to get your total overhead.
(Exciting & inspiring to think about, yes? Please tell me anyway.)
When comparing expenses between facilities, I need you to count
personnel expenses, including your salary and benefits, in the total. I
don't need to know your total budget or your salary, but the
percentages get screwed up unless everything is wrapped up together.
Many of the people I've received responses from do not normally do
this, but I'd appreciate it you did just for survey purposes.
Thanks for your help! I'll come out w/ some results very soon.
- Josh
Please reply underneath each question. This is a survey, not an audit,
so please just give your best estimates for the figures. I invite you
to append an open ended discussion at the end of the survey.
OPERATIONAL MODEL
1) Is your institution public or private?
2) What department or interdepartmental entity is your facility in?
3) Is the NMR Facility manager responsible for non-NMR equipment, e.g.,
IR & mass spectrometers?
4) Is the NMR Facility part of a broader instrumentation/core facility,
e.g., an analytical or biophysics center?
5) Do you provide service (running people's samples for them, analyzing
spectra, etc.), and what do you charge for it? Do you charge for all
collaboration or just routine service work? Please discuss briefly.
6) (Updated question from previous survey): What fraction of your
facility manager's salary is covered by user fees?
REVENUE:
When you add staff salaries and benefits to cryogens, repairs, and
other such items to determine total operating expenses...
7) ... what fraction is covered by user fees?
8) ... what fraction is covered by your department?
9) ... what fraction is covered by your university or division?
10) ... what fraction is covered by contributions from individual
investigators' grants (not associated with recharge fees)?
11) ... what fraction is covered by other sources, such as portions of
a shared instrumentation grant? In general terms, please describe those
sources.
EXPENSES:
When you add staff salaries and benefits to cryogens, repairs, and
other such items to determine total operating expenses...
12) ... what fraction goes toward salaries and benefits?
13) ... what fraction goes toward cryogens?
14) ... what fraction goes toward repairs (parts+labor not covered by
service contracts)?
15) ... what fraction goes toward service contracts?
16) ... what fraction goes toward equipment purchases (probes, sample
changers, hardware upgrades, etc.)?
17) ... what fraction goes toward staff travel?
18) ... what fraction goes toward misc. supplies, such as paper, toner,
solvents, etc.?
19) ... what fraction goes toward other expenses, and what are they?
20) What aspects of your facility should be considered that are not
addressed by the questions above? Please feel free to include an
unrestricted discussion here.
21) How much does your institution charge its PIs' grants for overhead
costs? (For reference, average is approximately 53%) We would like to
see if high overhead charges correlate with strong financial support
for shared facilities.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT!
Josh Kurutz, Ph.D.
Technical Director, Biomolecular NMR Facility
University of Chicago
Center for Integrative Science, room W123B
929 E. 57th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
Office: (773) 834-9805
Spectrometer room: (773) 702-4052
Cell (773) 315-5732
Fax: (208) 978-2599
nmr.bsd.uchicago.edu
Received on Thu Feb 23 2006 - 07:49:24 MST