In response to Ed Srour's summary of our core operation, I thought I would
clarify a few points so you all don't think we are without pressures here
at PENN... While it is correct to say that we are currently operating in
the black (for the past 2 years) there are a lot of factors that contribute
to that condition. we too have a Cancer Center core grant that provides
40% of our operating costs thus chargebacks only have to cover a certain
proportion of expenses. In addition a portion of our salaries are covered
by the Department of Pathology outside of the facility. While we do not
receive any financial support from the University directly, we have
benefited from parts of program projects and other grants- this is
important. You need to have a good relationship with your research
administration to see that these grants get flagged and funds for things
like service contracts get added. Don't let them get away with just
budgeting user fees. Yes, there are a few other instruments on campus,
but we are have the most technically sophisticated instrumentation and the
only facility that provides both scientific support and training thus we
are often where most PI's end up. For this reason, we have put all excess
revenue back into the expansion of services to meet the needs of our users.
Our goal is to be revenue neutral--we hope to be able to reduce fees in
the future if we are successful in gaining more outside support.
In summary, if we depended only on user fees, we would not be in
the black. To have a successful core, it takes the support of the
administration at several levels--the result is to the greater financial
health of the institution by providing the basis necessary to insure the
success of the PIs in obtaining funds through grants--this is a good point
to raise in evaluating the success of your facility. It's not just the
direct dollars and cents, it is the funds generated by investigators
resulting from the use of your facility.
Hope this clarifies our situation and emphasizes that a successful
core takes the contribution of many--I think it would be virtually
impossible in this day and age to have one based on user fees alone-you
would have to price yourself out of the market!
Here's to continued (and new) support of our flow labs!
Jonni
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Jonni S. Moore, Ph. D. (moorej@mail.med.upenn.edu)
University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center
Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Shared Resource
Voice: 215-898-3528 Fax: 215-898-4227
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 03 2002 - 11:49:49 EST