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APPENDIX E
Facility Manager and User Questionnaires
The following two questionnaires (anc} accompanying cover letter) have been prepared by the
committee to gather information about the spectrum of smaller facilities within the United States and to
solicit input from the broader community. The first questionnaire is aimed at facility managers anct the
seconci is aimed at users (anc! potential users) of smaller facilities. The questionnaires will be made
available at the town meetings held in the spring; the American Physical Society meeting in March 2004
will draw persons from material, condensed matter, and chemical physics anti the Materials Research
Society meeting in April 2004 will include persons from materials science and engineering. To help
broaden the distribution and questionnaire response rate, the questionnaires have also been sent to specific
facilities such as the NSF Materials Research and Engineering Centers and the DOE NanoscaTe Science
Research Centers. Because of the usual sensitivity of survey results on population subsample response
rates, the committee does not plan to make any sweeping generalizations based upon the information
returned. The dissemination of these questionnaires has only begun; plans for broader distribution will
continue to evolve.
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Dear Colleague,
The Committee on Smaller Facilities (COSF) was establishect by the National Research Council (NRC)
with the support of both the National Science Foundation anct Department of Energy to make
recommendations about the challenges and opportunities that small and medium-sized multi-user
facilities face in materials research.
A queshonna~re is attached for your response that is designecl to gather data on existing smaller facilities.
The data will only be used in aggregate or in ways that clo not reveal the identity of the responding
institutions or individuals. We only ask for identification in case the committee wishes to follow up for
clarification.
Please send your responses to the NRC via
E-mail: smallerfac~nas.eclu
Fax:
Mail:
202-334-3575
Committee on Smaller Facilities
Board on Physics and Astronomy
Keck 922W
500 5 St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Finally, if you are aware of colleagues who wouict be interested} in accessing this request for input, please
have them contact the NRC at smallerfac@nas.eclu or direct them to the committee's website, located at
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/projects_COSF committee.html.
We would appreciate receiving your responses in about two weeks.
Thank you for your assistance in this endeavor. We recognize the demands on your time and appreciate
the information you and your staff are able to provide.
Sincerely,
Robert Sinclair, Chair
Committee on Smaller Facilities
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Small and Mid-sized Multi-user Facility Manager Survey
To the best of your knowledge, please answer the following questions for the small to mid-sized multi-
user facility under your leadership. In the case of multiple facilities within your center or department' we
ask you either to answer the questions in sum for all such facilities or to fill out a separate questionnaire
for each facility.
APPROXIMATE ANSWERS ARE ALL THAT ARE NEEDED.
1. Identity
The identities of responding institutions and inclivicluals wil1t be held confidential to COSF ancl will only
be used to follow up for clarification if necessary.
a. Name of the facility:
b. Host institution:
c. Facility website (if available):
d. Primary mission:
e. What distinguishes the facility?
2. Budget and funding
a. Annual operations budget (including staff salaries, overhead, supplies, maintenance, etc.) for
the facility:
b. Percentage of this funding derived from each of the following sources:
Federal grant: NO Institutional sources: °/O
User fees: % State funding: °/O
Gifts: O/O
c.
Other (indicate source):
Percentage of budget expenditures on:
Staff: NO Maintenance & supplies: %
Equipment replacement, upgrades, and acquisitions:
d. Is there an arrangement with the host institution to cover a portion of staff salaries? _
If so, please describe.
3. Staff and management
a. Number of full-time equivalent staff employed in the facility:
b. Number of those staff conclucting original research in the facility:
c. If there are multiple facilities, is there a manager who oversees all of their operations?
If yes, what percentage of a full time position is devoted to such management:
4. Users and usage
a. Typets) of work at the facility (please check all that apply):
Fabrication: Characterization:
Measurement:
Other (please describe):-
Synthesis and/or crystal growth:
onto
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b. What is the breakdown of scientific disciplines of users (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) and
in what percentages?
Discipline 1:
Discipline 2:
Discipline 3:
c. Is the facility oversubscribed or undersubscribed?
Oversubscribed:
By what amount? %
or Undersubscribed: By what amount? TO
d. Number of distinct users served annually:
e. Percentage of users who are:
Graduate students and post-does:
Government lab staff researchers:
Undergraduates:
o/o
_%
In
Commercial/in~iustrial researchers: °/O
f. Percentage of users who are:
From within the host institution:
Local, but outside host institution:
Regional (within a day's travel by car):
National/international (overnight stay required): NO
g. Percentage of facility usage for each of the following:
User research (including user training and support):
o/o
-o/o
o/o
o/o
Service research (concluctect by technical staff): NO
Instrument technology and applications development: NO
Other (please describe):
h. Are there facilities with similar capabilities at the host institution?
i. What formal coordination exists among facilities at the host institution to develop
complementary capabilities?
o/o
j. If the facility has a formal users' group, please provide contact information:
5. Equipment and capital investment
a. Replacement capitalization cost (at today's prices) for all instruments in the facility:
b. Average annual investment in capital equipment (from all sources of funding):
c. What is your most heavily used instrument?
ct. Most important acquisition planned in the next five years and its estimated cost:
6. Other comments (optional)
Please proviate any additional comments that might be relevant to the committee's task. For instance,
you may comment on future needs of yourfacility or any chal1lenges experienced in operatingyour
facility. We are also particularly interested in thoughts on how to improve the facilities system—
increasing usage, effectiveness, impact, etc. Finally, fee!free to elaborate on any of the answers provided
above.
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Small and Mid-sized Multi-user Facility User Survey
To the best of your knowledge, please answer the following questions for the small to mid-sized multi-
user facilities that you use periodically. For the purposes of this questionnaire, assume that "smaller
facility" refers to a small to mici-sizect multi-user facility for materials research.
APPROXIMATE AND SHORT ANSWERS ARE ALL THAT ARE NEEDED.
1. Types of Use
a. Do you occasionally make use of instruments or services that are not located within your
own laboratory? (yin) LIf no, please skip to Section 5.]
b. What types of services or facilities do you use? (please check all that apply)
Fabrication: Characterization:
Measurement:
Instrumentation clevelopment:
Other (please clescribe):
What percentage of your research (time) is conducted at smaller facilities? %
d. For the smaller facilities you use most often, how many other users would you estimate
also make use of them?
e. What is your field of research?
f. Please name one or more smaller facilities that you have used in the past 12 months.
Synthesis/crystal growth:
or Don't know
2. Purpose of Use
a. In a few words, please describe further why you make use of smaller facilities.
b. In your experience, have smaller facilities enhances! or extended your research; if so,
how?
3. Ease of Access
a. In general, how far away are the smaller facilities that you use? Please give an estimate of
the percentage time that you spend at facilities located at the different distances.
On campus/site: TO
Within 30 min travel (any means): TO
Regional (day's car travel): TO
National (overnight stay required): TO
b. On average, how far in advance do you need to make arrangements for time at the
smaller facility? hours/clays/weeks/months
Do YOU find this lead time acceptable?
- (yin)
For your most frequent uses of smaller facilities, what is the maximum react time that you
would find acceptable? hours/days/weeks/months
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e.
If Bleat facilities became available, considering travel, and setup time, how far would you
be willing to travel to use them? (in miles or hours)
If ideal facilities became available, considering the travel expense and user fees, what
level of cost would be prohibitive for you to consoler their use? (either in terms of total
cost, cost per hour, or other measure relevant to you)
g. To generalize, what is the number one criterion for determining which facility you will
use?
4. Quality of Service
a. In general, what percentage of your time using the smaller facility are you operating the
instruments yourself, relatively unattended?
b. If you or your students have been trained on equipment at smaller facilities, are you
satisfied with the degree of training that was provided? (yin)
In general, when registering to use a smaller facility, do you speak with a facility
manager or technical staff person?
d. When you have questions or concerns about the equipment ant! facilities, to whom do
you go for answers?
Facility director:
Colleague:
5. Facility Outreach
Technical staff person:
Another user:
a. Would you say that you are well aware of the smaller facilities at other institutions (local,
regionally, and nationally) that could assist you in your research and/or training needs?
(yin)
b. If so, how ctid you learn about those facilities?
c.
What kinds of resources could help you identify such facilities?
d. If you have prepared proposals for research funding, have you included requests for
access to and use of specific smaller facilities (on site, nearby, in your region, or
nationally) in the grant proposal? (yin) Likewise, when preparing budget
estimates for a research proposal, to what extent do you include estimates for user fees to
take advantage of specific smaller facilities? (y/n)
Please comment further.
Finally, what level of financial support per year would be necessary to fully enable
your research by providing sufficient access to smaller facilities? _$-
e. In general, are you satisfied with your experiences using smaller facilities? (yin)
f. In general, have you recommendecl your colleagues to any smaller facilities? (yin)
g. Have you ever considered commercial alternatives to smaller facilities? (yin)
Why or why not (too expensive, too slow, too far, etc.?
h. Have you considered remote operation of and access to smaller facilities to reduce the
travel required? (yin) Why or why not?
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6. Comments
a. Have you considered developing a smaller facility at your own institution to meet your
research needs? Why or why not?
b. Please list one conclusion or recommendation that you think the committee should
consider in its deliberations.
c.
d.
At your "favorite" smaller facility of choice, what is one aspect that you would most like
to see improved? (piece of equipment, access time, support, materials, etc.)
If you have anything else you wouic! like to explain or comment on, please do!
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