Procedures and Guidelines

Requests

All requests should be sent to bs-bioimaging@exeter.ac.uk, using our Bioimaging Centre Request Form ‌. All requests are to be authorised by the academic supervisor. Note that only written requests will be considered.

Project Types

We have 7 different types of projects: Preliminary Projects (P), Funded Projects (F), Charity/EU funded Project (CE), Established Projects (E), Investment Projects (I), Student Projects (S) and External Projects (EX). These projects are costed at different rates (for charges please email bs-bioimaging@exeter.ac.uk). Only F, CE and EX projects are charged the full economic cost of usage. Please note that all charges are subject to constant review, with the exception of F projects, which are reviewed annually in February.

Priority

The Bioimaging Centre staff will prioritise as follows:

1. Project fully funded by grant money (F and CE projects).
2. Data needed for a deadline (e.g. grant proposal or revision image).
3. Data that is required for an ending project (e.g. end of fellowship).
4. Undergraduate projects.

Consideration will be given to urgent projects – please state your case on the Request Form.

Setting up a Project

1. Send us a request form, on which you briefly tell what needs to be done, who your co-workers are and under which category your project falls (see descriptions above). For P,E, S and University EX projects, please also provide a cost code against which project charges will be made on a quarterly basis.
2. You will receive a confirmation email from us giving the start and end date of your project and your project reference (e.g. a funded project from Nick Talbot could have the code F-NJT-1). This reference is to be used for all bookings and project activities by all co-workers on the project.
3. We will keep record of all costing. We will charge against the provided cost code for P, E, S and University EX projects quarterly and provide statements for I, CE and F projects upon request or when funds are becoming low.

General Rules

• No one is permitted to use Bioimaging equipment without a proper induction by Bioimaging staff or authorised other parties.
• All microscopes to be left in a clean and proper condition.
• Microscopes can be booked from 8:00 to 18:00.
• The confocal microscope can be used out of hours by trained users only who must follow the Rules for Out of Hours Working in the Bioimaging Centre.
• Individual bookings should be limited to a maximum of 4 hours a day. Confocal time course experiments lasting longer than 4 hours should be booked at the end of the week, or, by prior arrangement with Bioimaging staff, at the weekend.
• Booking can be made up to 1 month in advance. If you fail to show up for a booking, we will cancel the booking after 20 minutes, unless we are notified in advance.
• Abuse of microscopes or charging codes can result in the exclusion from the Bioimaging Centre.
• All customers to follow the instructions of the Experimental Officers in the Bioimaging Centre, who have the right to refuse entry into the suite and use of instruments if customers have acted inappropriately, for instance careless use of the equipment, not leaving the Centre in an appropriate state.
• Undergraduate students are not allowed to use the microscopy facility unless supervised by a PI (e.g. a Post-Doc or PhD student) and they should not use any high end equipment on their own. An exception from this is the Nikon microscope, which can be built into undergraduate projects. However, any work on this microscope must be done during business hours and must be agreed by Martin Schuster or Christian Hacker.
• External users will require an induction into the Bioimaging Centre before starting work.

Those doing category 2 work must:

• State this on the Request Form
• Thoroughly clean bench areas with appropriate disinfectant after the end of session.
• Transport any category 2 material to and from the Bioimaging Centre within a leak proof container. Volumes of infectious material brought into the Bioimaging Centre should be kept to the minimum necessary for experimental purposes. On leaving the Bioimaging Centre these containers should be doused with 75% ethanol or other disinfectant, as appropriate.
• Any spillages on microscopes must be reported to a member of Bioimaging staff.
• Individual cases and exceptions to be discussed with the Director of the Bioimaging Centre, Professor Gero Steinberg (G.Steinberg@exeter.ac.uk)

Final Note

We will try to serve all customers to the best of our ability but please be aware that conflicts of interest might occur that force us to delay your request. It is also possible that delays may occur as the result of technical challenges. However, please be ensured that we will make every effort to satisfy all customers.

If you have any ideas, enquiries or complaints please contact the Director of the Bioimaging Centre: G.Steinberg@exeter.ac.uk (tel. 723476) or a member of staff.