User fees

The project costs are calculated taking external (outside LU) as well as internal grants for equipment and staff into consideration. LBIC as a core facility is dependent on external as well as internal funding. In order to keep our machine park well maintained and our research output at the cutting edge we must implement user fees. These fees are predominantly used for maintenance and service contract but also for competence and method development as well as consumables that is not covered by our internal and external funding agencies. It should be noted that user fees are significantly subsidized for university users, and that LBIC strives to keep the user fees as low as possible in line with its mission as a core facility. Depending upon the future amount of external as well as internal grants, it can however be foreseen that fees will change over time. Fees are normally presented as charge per hour, however the platform responsible decides about reasonable time slots for the proposed experiments, taken into account preparation and finishing work occupying the scanner before and after each scan.

Comments to the user fees:

1. For fees on all our platform, please see https://www.lbic.lu.se/practicalities , under each platform you will find a tab named prices that lists both hourly fees and relevant consumables.
    
2. The published costs are without overhead (LU overhead costs are carried by the user) and, for users for which it is applicable, without VAT.
    
3. For the preclinical platforms users provide animals and animal care.
    
4. Groups that want to use the laboratories at LBIC without using the imaging scanners can obtain permission to do so at the same charge as above, however it is the RB that decides about the priorities at the platform in question. For experiments involving radioactive tracers, users pay for these. In addition, radiation protective related issues as well as disposal and handling of radioactive waste require an additional specific fee for consumables etc.
    
5. For the preclinical platforms the minimum booking time is 4h, due to the need of preparations before and after experiments, after which users are billed after active hours of use on the preclinical modality.
   For exact application of billable hours, please check with the facility in question.
    
6. Commercial research applications should be separated from research applications where collaboration takes place between an academic PI and a company. Commercial research applications should be filed by a representative of the company, while collaborative research applications can be filed by a PI inside LU (or at another university), and if so they will be handled by the RB using adequate prize tags for academic applicants.
   
   It is the responsibility of the company and/or the academic PI to decide which category that is adequate, and the RB will follow-up on the usage of allotted scanner time and other LBIC facilities.
    
7. Cancellation of the bookings must be notified on a working day to the respective responsible platform 24h prior to planned experiment otherwise scan time will be charged accordingly.