The concept of Small Research Facilities (SRFs) was introduced in autumn 2007 and replaced that of 'access charges'. It became mandatory from 1 February 2008 for all research intensive institutions to charge out some research facilities. Costs for running the facility are recouped by charging measurements to SRF ring-fenced funding within grants. This recharging mechanism helps balance the running costs of the facility. Its intention is to make the running costs of the facility clear so that the appropriate amount of money can be brought in on future grants, as well as making the financial case clear for new instrumentation. It is not a service fee, a service rate multiplier applies for submitted samples.
Funds will not be charged unless the grant in question has funding specifically assigned for this purpose (to SRFs). These charges will never siphon funding away from research budgets and a lack of funding will never restrict usage.
The 2024/2025 costs at the time of writing are:
| |
Charged |
Service rate |
standard rate (user run) |
NIH rate |
WT (charity) rate |
| SQUID |
Per day |
× 2 |
£274.87 |
£138.30 |
£63.00 |
| SQUID |
7 hours or less
|
× 2 |
£137.44 |
£69.15 |
£31.5 |
| X-ray |
Per Sample |
× 2.25 |
£21.36 |
£5.00 |
£5.00 |
Please check: Small Research Facility Rates - Chemistry Intranet (ox.ac.uk) for up to date costings.
These charges reflect the running costs of the instruments for the department. They are not service fees.
Internal users
Usage is tracked and charges are automatically taken from the appropriate SRF allocated funding (if present) by the finance department. No action is required. If you have any questions about this please contact the finance department.
External users, within Oxford University
The procedure for charging is to raise a purchase order as a non-catalogue request through iProcurement (R12). Choose ‘Chemistry’ as the supplier name and add a description of the services in the item description. E.g.
“[X number] days of SQUID measurement time in [Month,Year] as part of the inorganic materials characterisation SRF by [your name, supervisor, department]."
Price: "£274.87 per day”
Please check with the grant holder before proceeding and ensure the appropriate cost centre is entered when submitting the PO.
External users, outside Oxford University
Please use the contact form to enquire.
