Molecular Structures Group
Policies on Access and Prioritie.
1. The MSG exists,
first and foremost, to provide services and instrument
access for faculty, students, postdocs, and other
research staff at the University of Kansas who are
conducting publishable research. They should receive
the shortest possible turnaround times in the labs.
Broadly, "first come, first served," will apply,
within constraints such as short experiments may
be turned around more quickly than long ones, and
lab operations may be streamlined by grouping similar
tasks which require an instrument to be set up in
a particular way. Lab staff are to ensure that different
users are being treated equitably, taking into account
such factors as timely progress toward a degree,
preparing presentations, finishing papers, etc.
2. Visitors, such as REU students or faculty on
sabbatical from another university, will receive
access to the MSG labs for projects intended for
joint publication or presentation with KU faculty
and students. Their faculty sponsors will be responsible
for making sure the necessary resources are available
(ideally, before inviting the visitor) and seeing
that lab charges incurred by visitors are paid.
But in the event that the lab's capacities are stretched
or exceeded (for example, by a lengthy instrument
breakdown), the priority order for service will
ordinarily be: graduate students, postdocs, undergraduates,
visitors, and users from outside the University.
However, lab staff will leave priority decisions
within a research group to the discretion of faculty.
3. Samples originating outside the University as
part of a faculty member's external collaboration,
where lab charges are paid from KU grant funds and
joint publication of results is planned, will have
the same priority as samples originating inside
the University.
4. The labs may accept samples directly from other
universities or colleges as long as there is sufficient
instrument time available. These services will be
billed at standard rates for direct costs, but a
charge equivalent to KU's indirect cost rate (currently
46%) will be added. Some lab resources, particularly
software with single-user or KU site licenses, will
be unavailable if the terms of the license prohibit
such use. Joint publication, when feasible, should
be sought; otherwise, the MSG should be acknowledged
in any publications that result.
5. Samples from industry may also be accepted if
time is available, and if the industrial client's
goals are compatible with ours. However, the labs
will not advertise for such work. Lab staff will
be responsible for setting charges in this case
that do not undercut commercial vendors of the same
service. In addition to the software licensing issues
mentioned above, specific services may be unavailable
to industrial clients if KU received an academic
discount when purchasing equipment or licensing
software and the vendor prohibits such use. For
lengthy projects, grant funding and/or publication
rights are desirable outcomes, and lab staff should
try to negotiate for them with the client.
6. Individuals without an academic or industrial
affiliation will ordinarily not be allowed to use
the MSG laboratory facilities or receive results
from them. Under rare circumstances, exceptions
may be made, if no licensing or liability issues
are raised, and there is some compelling benefit
to the University (such as recruitment of a prospective
student).
Approved by the MSG Steering Committee, Robert Hanzlik,
Chair, 1/12/2000
Approved by the Center for Research, James Roberts,
Vice Chancellor
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