Post in Equipment Donation Vouchers: Core Administrators Network Forum: ABRF Discussion Forums

Hi Angie, Northwestern OR does run a voucher program. It is a $10,000 voucher on a $600,000 purchase and is prorated for lower cost donations. In theory, the funds are to be spent only on use of the donated instrument. In practice, it goes toward use of the core. We do not provide support if we provided staff support for a core facilities director to write the proposal. This program does not have a separate budget line. We just squeeze it in to our equipment grant program. We fund 0-3 of these per year. I find that the vouchers do not provide enough support to change the financial calculations of a PI deciding if the instrument should go into a core or in their lab. However, it greatly changes the tone of the conversation. We can point to many instances where the first instrument goes into the core and then the core upgrades 5-10 years later and the PI has access to current technology while sharing the operational costs (i.e. effectively cheaper to operate instrument through the core). In any case, we always respect the PI decision, but make it clear that we will not support them operating a recharge core if they would be competing with an existing core. In terms of the program, we used to award funds to the core and then they tracked the spending. This was very painful as they had to manage the account and then transfer any deficits from the PI's discretionary accounts. Now we transfer to the PI and then have the ability to track what was spent. This is one of the many advantages of a centralized billing system. Andy Director of Core Facilities Administration Office for Research ph: 847-467-1622 ph: 847-491-3032 email: <email obscured>