1.1 To facilitate collaboration and to ensure the effective utilisation of its research assets, the University requires that its staff look for opportunities to share equipment (including at other institutions) before purchasing new items. Likewise, research equipment within the University should be made available for sharing where it is practical to do so. This policy is in line with the direction of travel within the sector and requirements of funding bodies, specifically UKRI.
2.1 This policy applies to all research equipment with a value of £25,000 or greater owned by Durham University. Staff are encouraged to make equipment of lower value available for sharing where appropriate.
Where the policy refers to Research Facilities, this includes both Major Research Facilities (MRFs) and Small Research Facilities (SRFs).
3.1 All equipment should be made available for sharing unless there are clear reasons why this is not practical. Exceptions include where:
To facilitate sharing, all purchased equipment over the value of £25,000 must be added to the relevant research equipment databases, and lower value items should be added where appropriate.
To ensure that equipment use is sustainable, the full costs of using equipment should be recognised and, where possible and reasonable, recovered as part of a Research Facility. Information on how Research Facilities are classified and on costing and charging is available from Research & Innovation Services.
Internal users are expected to contribute to the costs of using Research Facilities in their own and other departments, according to the charging model for the Facility. These costs should be included in research grant applications where eligible. Access charges are normally eligible costs against the Research Training Support Grants for PhD students. Users will typically also provide, or pay for, any consumables required by their experiment.
Where users do not have funds that can be used to pay access charges to Research Facilities, users may still be provided access according to the access policies for the Facility. Facility access policies should be designed to support the highest quality research, to provide opportunities for new users and proof-of-principle experiments, to support PhD students to complete their theses, and to enable access by Undergraduate and Masters students where required. Access policies should treat users from all Departments equitably.
Where equipment does not form part of a Research Facility, users are expected to pay for the cost of setting up the equipment for their experiment and for any consumables used. Where significant use is made of shared equipment, users may reasonably be expected to contribute to the maintenance costs of the equipment.
If a user causes damage to shared equipment, the user is responsible for the costs of repair or replacement. Where the user is unable to pay these costs, the costs fall back on the Department of the user. In exceptional cases, Head of Department may apply for university equipment funds to cover the cost of repair.
Equipment should not be utilised until requisite permission(s) have been given and any necessary training provided.
When any equipment is being shared with an external party, prior to such usage commencing
It is expected that a formal agreement (signed off by the Head of Department or delegate) will be put in place for commercial users, and that such users will normally be charged at least the full economic costs for equipment use.
This applies both to Research Facilities and other equipment.
Departments are responsible for maintaining the appropriate usage records, costing information and calculations to facilitate equipment charging for Research Facilities and may nominate a specific equipment manager for this task. Records must be appropriate to meet external funders audit requirements.
4.1 Options for sharing equipment (internally and externally) should be considered prior to purchase of any new equipment. The applicant must have checked the relevant internal and external databases for suitable items before any application is submitted.
Where equipment requests are included in research grant applications, funder guidelines must be adhered to.
Where the University is required to make a contribution to the cost of equipment (match funding), a business case must be prepared and submitted in line with the Equipment Match Funding process. Business cases may also be submitted for equipment where the equipment is essential for a research grant but is an ineligible cost for the funder and where there is no other way of accessing the equipment.
External funding for equipment should always be sought where possible. Internal funding is normally only provided for multiuser equipment underpinning a range of research projects and for which there is no external funding available.
The Equipment Planning Round process runs annually. Further information is available from Research and Innovation Services.
5.1 Durham University researchers should acknowledge the contribution of others in publications. This extends to the use of equipment at other sites.
5.2 External users of Durham’s equipment should also formally acknowledge the University and notify the Department. Standard acknowledgement wording is as follows:
“The authors acknowledge the use of [insert equipment name, identifier and funder ref (if appropriate)] equipment from Durham University and the help of [Insert name or Research Group] in this research.”
5.3 Researchers must follow funder guidelines on acknowledgement or reporting of sharing of equipment must be followed.
20 June 2023
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