Rates & Policies

RATES

Rates are posted for 12 months only.  At the end of this period, all rates will be subject to review and will undergo any necessary revisions at that time. All rates are posted in the minimum billable increment. Please submit the study request form prior to beginning any project.

Current Rates

All charges on or after the effective date (January 1, 2019) will be in accordance with the rates below.  There is no change to the MRI rate for any current users but there are now new categories with different rates. A small fee for TMS and EEG has been added to offset the cost of wear and tear, and consumables. We have also formalized our cancellation and reservation policy for MRI (please see details below). For current users with or without grants and those who have documentation of submitting a grant before 12/31/2018 without factoring these new rates and policies in, we will provide small recharge funds to offset these new costs. Please contact us.

These rate changes have long been discussed over the past couple of years but was formally approved by the BIRC Steering Committee in September and by CLAS on 12/18/2018. Given these changes and to avoid misunderstandings, we ask all to get approval from BIRC Interim Director Nicole Landi before submitting a grant. We do not want to control your science but we would like to approve your budget to ensure you will have sufficient resources that allows you to do the science you want!

MRI w/tech

Internal research users Rate for UConn faculty research
$250/30 min
Non-commercial external users Rate for research at non-UConn institutions such as non-profit organizations and other universities
$250/30 min
Industry Rate for research supported by industry-sponsored grants (made to any internal or external users)
$500/30 min
Clinical Rate surcharge for clinical ambulatory non-contrast MRI
applicable base rate plus $50/30 min

TMS

Internal research users Rate for UConn faculty research
$35/1 hr
Non-commercial external users Rate for research at non-UConn institutions such as non-profit organizations and other universities
$44/1 hr
Industry Rate for research supported by industry-sponsored grants (made to any internal or external users)
$70/1 hr

EEG

Internal research users Rate for UConn faculty research
$30/up to 2 hrs
Non-commercial external users Rate for research at non-UConn institutions such as non-profit organizations and other universities
$38/up to 2 hrs
Industry Rate for research supported by industry-sponsored grants (made to any internal or external users)
$60/up to 2hrs

GRANT SUBMISSIONS

Any substantial research that includes UConn faculty, conducted on UConn campuses, and/or utilizes UConn facilities funded by federal and non-federal grants should include a subcontract to UConn faculty and appropriate indirect costs (IDC). The subaward should include faculty (summer) salary, salary support for other research personnel, scanning-related costs, and other research-related costs as needed. Those that do not include these will be considered “off-site” and charged with external rates. Grant proposals using BIRC resources must be approved by BIRC leadership prior to grant submission to allocate sufficient funds.

SCHEDULING

RESERVATION POLICY FOR ALL RESOURCES

  • All reservations must account for anticipated preparation and cleanup time as well as any breaks during the procedure.
  • All reservations are managed through the online scheduling system on a first-come, first-serve basis.

MRI RESERVATION POLICY

  • The minimum scan duration for scheduling and billing purposes is 30 minutes. Thereafter, additional time is billed in 30-minute increments. Billable time includes all setup and cleanup time. Users who run over their scheduled time will be charged for the unscheduled time in 30-minute increments. All reservations must account for anticipated preparation and cleanup time as well as any breaks during the scan. Please avoid leaving 30-minute blocks of free time when booking MRI scan time. Run scans consecutively. Exceptions may be made with prior approval by BIRC leadership, e.g. the grant was submitted or funded prior to after the effective date noted above and it clearly documents the need for scans in 15-min increments.
  • Development time of two sessions is provided at no cost to evaluate image quality and in-scanner presentation. Users are expected to thoroughly test their paradigms outside the scanner prior to development scans and consult BIRC staff on how to interface paradigms with the MRI systems. Additional development time may be granted by BIRC leadership, e.g. to evaluate novel sequences or hardware.

MRI CANCELLATION POLICY

Please note: All cancellation fees will be based on the original method of scheduling, and block scheduling cancellation fees will be based on the total hours scheduled 14 days prior to the reservation. Single Participant: Reservations cancelled within 24 hours prior to the scan time are subject to a 100% charge; however, we encourage all unfilled scans to be cancelled two weeks prior to the scan time. To promote lab accountability, the last minute cancellation fee (within 24 hours prior to scan time) applies to all subject-related justifications: subject no-show, subject illness, inability to be scanned (e.g. size, claustrophobia), which are expected to be relatively infrequent. Cancellation fees will not apply to those due to BIRC hardware or software malfunction. Until further notice, charges for last minute cancellations will be waived when participants cancel/cannot participate due to COVID-19 symptoms or quarantine.

Block Reservations (three or more consecutive hours reserved for scanning multiple participants): BIRC recognizes it can be difficult to book scanner time during busy months, and many investigators would like to book blocks of time in advance to run multiple participants with the goal to find participants to fill the reserved slots. We support this practice, but we also need to ensure the scanner is available to be utilized by all investigators. We ask that, if you are using a block scheduling system, you please cancel any unfilled slots with a minimum of 14 days’ notice to allow other investigators the opportunity to schedule participants.

The following cancellation fees for block scheduling will become effective February 1, 2022:

Internal research users/Non-commercial external users:
>14 days’ notice:no charge
8-14 days’ notice: 25% of cancelled time ($125/hour)
>24 hours-7 days’ notice: 50% of cancelled time ($250/hour)
<24 hours’ notice: 100% of cancelled time ($500/hour)
Industry:
 >14 days’ notice: no charge
8-14 days’ notice: 25% of cancelled time ($250/hour)
>24 hours-7 days’ notice: 50% of cancelled time ($500/hour)
<24 hours’ notice: 100% of cancelled time ($1000/hour)
Inclement Weather Policy – Weekdays

Storrs campus only: If classes are cancelled due to inclement weather, or the campus is closed for any reason and you have a study scheduled, you will not be charged for a cancellation.

If a participant cancels within 24 hours of the scheduled study start time due to inclement weather but the Storrs campus is open and operating normally (i.e., classes are not cancelled), it will be considered a short notice cancellation and will be charged at the full rate. 

Inclement Weather Policy – Weekends

A member of BIRC will contact the PI who has a participant scheduled on a Saturday or a Sunday to make them aware of potential impact of inclement weather and suggest they confirm the appointment with the participant at least 24 hours before the scheduled start time.

BIRC leadership will make a decision regarding BIRC’s status by 7:00PM the evening prior to the scheduled appointment. This decision will be based on recommendations from the Governor’s office and the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation.

The PI will be informed if BIRC will be closed, and that person will be responsible for contacting the participant.

Unlike the weekday inclement weather policy, BIRC will not charge an investigator for a short-notice (<24 hours) cancellation due to inclement weather on a weekend if the participant decides to cancel.

Printable Inclement Weather Policy

Cancellation waivers

For every 10 completed MRI scans, regardless of funding source, the last minute cancellation charge can be waived once. These credits cannot be used to fund additional scan time. The number of waivers accrued is indicated on the monthly study invoice. Waivers are specific to a study and are not transferrable between studies. For each study, the PI and contact person will receive a monthly listing of charges, total accumulated waivers, the number of waivers used, and the number of waivers remaining in the columns denoted <24 hours notice cancellation/No Show Credits. Cancellation charges will be deferred during the study and waivers will be applied automatically. At the end of the study, any outstanding cancellation charges will be billed.

MRI TECHNOLOGIST

  • Currently, the scanner can only be run by BIRC personnel.
  • Experienced students and faculty may run the scanner with prior permission by BIRC leadership and BIRC personnel. In such case, an MRI technologist is still required to be present in the console room at all times.

EEG RESERVATION POLCIY

  • EEG is billed per use (i.e. placing a cap on a participant). Recording sessions longer than 2 hours will incur additional charges.
  • When scheduling EEG, you must schedule both the EEG system and a room to run the experiment in. For MR-EEG users, this usually means booking the MR-EEG and MRI for your session. For non-MR EEG, this usually means booking the EEG system with the sound booth.
  • If you are using photogrammetry, you must also reserve the TMS/Photogrammetry room. Please reserve this room only for the anticipated window you will be taking photos rather than the entire EEG session.
  • The EEG system may be booked in 30 minute increments up to a maximum of 2 hours per booking.

DATA COLLECTION, PROCESSING, AND ANALYSIS

Users are responsible for supervision of their research staff, experiments, data collection, and completing analyses. Please contact the Associate Director to setup a free one-time consultation session prior to implementing your study to make sure your research needs are met. Subject to available resources, basic data processing, analysis, and pipeline customization services can be provided at $50/hr on approval. This service is appropriate for investigators who want to outsource some or all of the workload associated with a project. Depending on availability and the skills needed, these services may be provided by an IBRAiN fellow or by another member of BIRC scientific staff.

DATA STORAGE

BIRC provides data storage and backup services for original MRI scan data at no additional cost through NiDB. Although BIRC and the University make reasonable efforts to ensure the integrity of this data, this cannot be guaranteed. Users are encouraged to make their own backup copies of their original data. Users are responsible for storing derivative data. BIRC provides a number of shared workstations for analysis, however these workstations are not backed up and may not be used for long-term storage.

COMPUTING RESOURCES

BIRC provides a number of shared workstations for analysis, however these workstations are not backed up and may not be used for long-term storage. BIRC users may request priority access to the BIRC’s shared computing node within the UConn Storrs HPC cluster. BIRC provides general-purpose containerized processing environments suitable for use on the cluster to provide a starting point for users to implement their own cluster-based pipelines.

IBRAiN PROGRAM

Click here for information about the scope of IBRAiN activities and associated policy. Last updated September 24, 2020.