FAQs for MSU Users

Core facilities make specialized research technology and expertise available to the entire campus community, often for a fee. They are traditionally associated with expensive scientific instrumentation (microscopes, NMR, flow cytometry facilities, etc.) Here at MSU, core facilities are overseen by MSU’s Office of Research rather than by individual academic departments. Whereas centers & institutes (C&I) organize many different resources for the purpose of addressing specific research topics, cores tend to provide a single resource, which can be applied towards many different research foci.

Our incredible staff are experts in their core’s technologies and services. When you hire a core facility to assist with your research, you are collaborating with professionals who specialize in helping you obtain, analyze, and interpret high quality research data. Because core facilities are shared with the entire university community, the overall cost to your research group is much lower than if you were to hire a full-time, PhD-level specialist or maintain expensive instrumentation all on your own.

Simply call, email, or stop by the core facility that you want to work with, and our friendly staff can discuss your research needs with you.

Some of our cores operate on a walk-up basis, while others require advance scheduling. Please reach out to the core you want to work with, and they can guide you in their particular process.

Yes! Core staff are experts in their area of focus and can guide you through this process.

Absolutely! Many graduate and undergraduate researchers use our cores and we are passionate about training the next generation of scholars.

Many cores offer trainings for using their instrumentation. Please reach out to the core you want to work with, and they can help you schedule training.

Advance planning (i.e. prior to the start of the academic term) is greatly appreciated and please bear in mind that cores reserve the right to charge for their time, especially if the facility is closed off to other users during instructional periods. Please reach out to the individual core to discuss.

User fees are unique to each core and are posted on their individual websites. Core staff can help you estimate project costs as needed.

Our user fee structure is designed to comply with federal law and the NIH’s guidance for core facility costing. Cores are not allowed to profit from internal users, nor are they allowed to charge users for any expenses already covered by grants or other funds. In general, user fees represent the overall costs of a particular service (minus any charges paid by grants or other funds) divided by the amount of usage. When costs increase, user fees also increase. The more usage that a particular service gets, the lower the user fee. Thanks to ongoing subsidy support from the VPRED, cores can offer services to MSU users at significant discount relative to the true market value of those services.

Simply provide the core with a valid index number at the start of the project. Each month, we will sent out an invoice reflecting work done over the last month, then we will autobill your index. No need to submit payment to your department. Please know that cores reserve the right to decline a project if no billing index is provided at the start of the project.

We do not currently have any promotional programs of this sort, but we hope to have one in the future. In the meantime, your efforts to obtain facility upgrades allow the entire university community, yourself included, to enjoy improved research infrastructure at minimal additional cost. When a core facility pays to upgrade equipment, the user fee increases significantly because the facility’s costs have increased. But if these expenses can instead be charged to a grant rather than the core, the user fee is not increased, or only increases proportionally with respect to any increased need (supplies, maintenance, staffing, etc.) not covered by the grant.

We recommend reaching out to the Office of Research Development as well as the core you want to work with well in advance of the grant deadline. They can assist with creating an approximate scope of work and accompanying budget. We also recommend that you plan for user fees to increase throughout the lifespan of your grant, rather than remaining the same. Between 2021 and 2023, we observed significant price increases for many core expenses (especially lab supplies, compressed gases, repair visits, and maintenance contracts) which has translated into higher user fees. While we continue to look for efficiencies and hope for prices to level out, we hope to minimize rate increases as much as possible, but in order to be safe, we recommend that you plan for annual 10-20% increases in the user fee for the next few years. Individual cores could advise whether you should plan for the lower or higher end of that range.

Individual cores have very little ability to adjust their pricing in these situations, though they may be able to help identify potential efficiencies (bulk discounts, using facilities during non-peak hours, utilizing self-run services, etc.) We also recommend that you reach out to your department head to inquire about any available assistance, and then, if necessary, the Vice President of Research.

Yes. However, this can impact the user fee structure of the core, so we recommend reaching out to core staff to discuss this prior to submitting your grant applications.

Currently, cores are not part of the credit system in the ePCF.

Yes please! Since cores do not receive credit via the ePCF, citations and acknowledgements are one of our most important metrics for research impact. Our core staff would be happy to provide you with suggested language to include in your manuscripts. Some cores even provide this language on their individual website.

Even if we do not have the exact capabilities you are looking for, our core staff may be able to point you towards resources located elsewhere, or even arrange special collaborations (i.e. collecting data at a neighboring institution and analyzing the data in-house). Please also feel free to leave us a comment to suggest how we can improve our core program.