Equipment Donation Vouchers

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>

-----Original Message-----
From: Core Administrators Network Forum <email obscured>> On Behalf Of
Charles, Angela [SRF]
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2021 7:58 AM
To: <email obscured>
Subject: [core administrators network forum] Equipment Donation Vouchers

Hi everyone-

We are trying to start a program in which we offer investigators a voucher to a
specific core and/or a specific service when they donate a piece of equipment
to the core facility. Does anyone else have a program like this? If so, how do
you determine what amount the voucher should be? Since this will be setting
precedence, I want to make sure we think through this thoroughly.

Thanks!

ANGIE CHARLES
Director of Finance and Administration
Office of Shared Research Facilities
Animal Resources Center
The University of Chicago Biological Sciences
5841 S. Maryland Ave. | Rm. P-110, MC1030 | Chicago, IL  60637
Office: 773-702-6752
Fax: 773-702-0950

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