Dear microscopists, unfortunately all start-up funding of FILM (mostly from CISBIC) has expired now, so from now we need to cover all our costs from user charges. We therefore have to adapt our user charges from 1 May 2011. Luckily we have have built up a good usage base in the 5 years of FILM, so we have been able to keep the charges well below the estimated FEC rates (= undercharged relative to what users put in their grant applications). Even the increased charges will still be below FEC rates, we hope good usage will keep making up for it this year. We will review the situation at the end of the financial year (August) and hopefully it will work out. To avoid a steep rise, we are splitting the rates into more specific charging rates which more accurately reflect the actual costs. The new hourly charging rates will be: # widefield: £20 (up from £19) # confocal: £40 (up from £37) # multiphoton: £47 (reflecting the expensive running costs of the multiphoton laser) # software (Volocity and Definiens): £3 (except groups who already pay for their own dedicated licence) # staff assistance: £20 A note on the "staff assistance" charge: This does NOT apply to the usual training or any general help and assistance from staff; it is intended for very time-intensive, demanding techniques like e.g. in vivo imaging, high-resolution or image analysis, to make sure that we don't need to turn down user requests due to limitations in staff time. This are the CURRENT rates for FILM usage, for grant applications, please ALWAYS use the rates published by Research Support Services, the link is on the FILM website under GUIDELINES > CHARGES > GRANT APPLICATIONS. Please note that those rates are misleading for multiphoton usage: the multiphoton costs there are the confocal rate (£44) PLUS the rate for the multiphoton laser (£24) = £68 in total. If you have any questions, please feel free to get back to me. Good imaging, Martin <http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/imagingfacility/facility_guidelines/charges/charges_internal> <http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/portal/page/portallive/imagingfacility/facility_guidelines/charges#grant_applications> -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Martin Spitaler, PhD* *FILM - Facility for Imaging by Light Microscopy* - Facility Manager - Sir Alexander Fleming Building, desk 401 Imperial College London / South Kensington Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ UK Tel. +44-(0)20-759-42023 E-mail m.spitaler@imperial.ac.uk <mailto:m.spitaler@imperial.ac.uk> Website: http://imperial.ac.uk/imagingfacility