Rates/Fees for Lab Use
Organization Category
The fees and overhead applied are determined by how your organization is classified. Direct costs are reported on Badger and applied to organization categories as described below. (See Overhead for a description of how this is applied by category.) :
- Local: Stanford or SLAC
- Other Academic: Non-Stanford University, higher-educational institution. Includes government research organizations, research partners, and other not-for-profits.
- Industry: Companies, foreign non-academic institutions.
- Industry SBIR: Eligible organizations can receive a discount for Cleanroom equipment use. Documentation of the SBIR award will be required.
Equipment Use
Equipment fees are used to recover operating costs (general supplies, gases, spare parts, etc.) There is no charge for time spent in the labs, only for use of charged equipment, which is charged on a time basis. Certain consumables, such as precious metals and metallorganics, may be included in the equipment use fees. Rates are detailed on the fee pages.
Soft Cap System
The Soft Cap system is a graduated monthly equipment use fee that is applied to tools in the Cleanroom, with exceptions as noted on the rate sheets or the MOCVD and ExFab labs. In the Cleanroom, equipment is charged at the base hourly rate up to the Soft Cap, above which equipment use is charged at 25% of the base hourly rate. The equipment use fees are cumulative for the calendar month and reset to zero on the first day of every month. The Soft Cap is a dollar amount; use of no-charge equipment does not qualify.
Different labmembers on the same account will each have their own soft cap. One labmember working on different accounts will have a soft cap for each account. In summary: one soft cap per person, per project, per calendar month.
Staff Support
Staff charges are incurred for staff supported lab activities, such as training and processing requests. Training recharge rates are listed on the current fees page; recharge time for tool training is detailed in Equipment Summary. Staffers are generally available to help without charge. However, projects requiring major technical assistance might be subject to charges at the Staff Recharge rates indicated.
Overhead
Stanford University charges overhead on lab fees. Overhead rates are available on the DoResearch site. Labmembers can run lab reports to see current charges, which are reported as direct costs. Invoices are issued by the University and will list overhead as "Facilities and Administrative Charges" for each line item.
- Stanford University and Affiliates: The applicable overhead depends on the type of account; the University does not issue invoices for internal accounts and automatically applies the appropriate overhead.
- Non-Stanford, US University academic institutions are subject to the "Non-Sponsored Receivables Rates: Affiliated Users/Waived Rate."
- All other organizations (Industry/Industry SBIR, non-US academic and government research labs) are subject to the "Non-Sponsored Receivables Rates: All other external users".
SBIR Program
In keeping with NSF's aim to support small business, SNF offers a special SBIR rate for qualifying organizations. The Industrial-SBIR rate provides a discount on Cleanroom equipment use (not applicable to ExFab or MOCVD labs, or stockroom/inventory purchases.)
To qualify for an SBIR rate, the company or individual must have received funding support in the form of an SBIR grant awarded by any of the federal agencies participating in this program. To be eligible, a copy of the award letter or a link to the awarding agency website listing the award dates and awardee name must be provided. The SBIR rate is valid only for the dates of the SBIR award. For more information, contact the SNF Business Manager.