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Objective of the Survey

This survey is designed to be a comprehensive longitudinal study to allow the Microscopy community to track facility changes over time. This is an in-depth Microscopy Survey that was originally created in 2014 (Microscopy Facilities: Results of an international Survey, Horst Wallrabe et al, 2104). We have also included more timely questions to capture key challenges specific to the COVID-19 pandemic response.


This survey is structured to capture the following information:

a. Background Information.
b. Utilization and Financial Information.
c. Application Information.
d. Maintenance and Service
e. COVID-19 response and impact.


# Learn how your facility compares with other Microscopy Facilities/Cores regionally/worldwide
# Learn what advanced technologies other Microscopy Facilities/Cores are using.
# Learn about trends in Microscopy facilities
# Our intent is to provide a comprehensive report that you can use to justify your ongoing Institutional Support and/or acquisition of new Microscopy technologies.
#Learn how microscopy facilities worldwide are coping up with COVID-19

Other Information:


Please contact support@IdeaElan.com if you have any questions. All responses will be kept confidential.
The aggregated results of this survey will be made available in a peer-reviewed publication.

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* 1. How would you classify your Microscopy Facility?
(Select all that apply) (Background Info)

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* 2. How would you categorize the primary area of research of most of your users?
(Select all that apply) (Background Info)

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* 3. How many Microscopy facilities are in your Institution?

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* 4. How many major microscopes do you have in your Core Facility? (Background Info)

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* 5. How many of each type of instrument?

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* 6. How many Staff members do you have (excluding you)?

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* 7. How many Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff do you have (excluding you eg. 3.25 FTE)?

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* 8. How many total users do you have? (Including PI/Group leaders and any other users - Students/Post Docs/Researchers)

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* 9. As a manager/director/head of the Microscopy Facility, do you work on your own research?

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* 10. What is the annual operating cost of your Microscopy Facility?

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* 11. Does the total operating cost from the above question include staff salary?

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* 12. What are your sources of Funds to acquire new equipment? (Select all that apply)

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* 13. What percentage do you receive from the following sources of funds?
(Should sum up to 100%)

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* 14. How do you market your Microscopy Facility?
(Select all that apply) (Marketing Info)

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* 15. What percent of users do you estimate acknowledge your facility for publication?

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* 16. What is the average weekly usage and total number of users per instrument in your facility?

  NA <10 hours 10-20 hours 21-40 hours 41-60 hours 60+ hours # of Users 1-10 # of Users 10-30 # of Users Above 50
Wide-field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal
Multi-photon Systems
In Vivo systems
Super resolution
Light sheet
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscope
Micro CT

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* 17. How many active users do you have?

  1-10 11-30 31-50 51-75 76-100 101-200 201-300 More than 300
Internal Users
External Academic Users
Corporate Users
Principal Investigators (PI/ Group Leaders)

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* 18. What percent of equipment is utilized by

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* 19. What percent of revenue did you get from different types of users?

  <10% 10%-25% 26%-50% 51%-75% 76%-90% >90% N/A
Internal academic users
External academic users
Commercial users
Other

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* 20. What is the average margin for commercial user?

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* 21. What is your average hourly fee for Unsupervised /Regular session?

  0 $10-$30 (€9-€27) $31-$50 (€27-€45) $51-$75 (€45-€67) $76-$100 (€67-€89) >$100 (€90) NA
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 22. What is your average hourly fee for Supervised /Assisted session?

  0 $10-$30 (€9-€27) $31-$50 (€27-€45) $51-$75 (€45-€67) $76-$100 (€67-€89) >$100 (€90) NA
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 23. Do you offer training for users? (Select all that apply)

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* 24. What is your average hourly fee for Training sessions?

  0 $10-$30 (€9-€27) $31-$50 (€27-€45) $51-$75 (€45-€67) $76-$100 (€67-€89) >$100 (€90) NA
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 25. How do you manage your booking?

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* 26. How do you manage your billing?

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* 27. What advanced Microscopy applications are you currently using?
(Select all that apply) (Application specific)

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* 28. What Visualization and  Data Analysis approaches do you use? (Select all that apply)

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* 29. Who is responsible for data management? (Select all that apply)

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* 30. What enables your analysis? (Select all that apply)

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* 31. Do you have a dedicated resource for data analysis?

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* 32. As a Microscopy Core what are your key challenges?
(Should be ranked from least to most concern)

  1-Least Concern 2 3 4 5- Most Concern
Getting more users
Instrument Service/Repair Issues/Costs
Cost Recovery
Effective day-to-day operational challenges
Staffing related challenges

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* 33. How are old instruments handled?
(Select all that apply)

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* 34. What is the source of funding for service contracts? (Select all that apply)

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* 35. Who services your Instruments? (Select all that apply)

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* 36. What percent of your high end equipment do you maintain on a service contract?

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* 37. On an average, how often do you check for performance of every microscope in your facility?

  NA Daily Weekly Monthly Annually Never
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 38. How are technical issues for your Instruments reported to the manufacturer?

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* 39. On a scale of 1-10 how do you overall rate the Service/Repair process for Instrument category? (10 being excellent)

  NA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 40. What are the key factors for having a service contract? (Should be ranked from least to most concern)

  1 - Least Concern 2 3 4 5 6- Most Concern
Cost
Quality of Instrument
Quality of Service/Support
Utilization of Instrument
Speed of service
Peace of mind

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* 41. On average, how often is an individual instrument down due to technical issues in a year?

  NA 0-2 times a year 3-5 times a year 6-10 times a year >10 times a year
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 42. On average, how often is an individual instrument down due to technical issues in a year?

  NA 0-3 days  4 days - 1 week 1-2 weeks 2-3 weeks 3-4 weeks >4 weeks
Wide Field Microscopes
High Throughput Microscopes
Confocal Microscopes
Multi-photon Microscopes
In Vivo systems
Super resolution systems
Light Sheet systems
Atomic Force Microscopes
Scanning Electron Microscopes
Transmission Electron Microscopes
Cryo EM
X-Ray Microscopes
Micro CT

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* 43. How did your utilization change in the last 3 years up until the end of 2019?

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* 44. During lockdown, how did COVID-19 impact the utilization of your facility?

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* 45. After lockdown, how will your utilization be impacted with social distancing rules due to COVID-19

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* 46. What business/operating rules and policies do you plan to change in the COVID-19 era? (Select all that apply)

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* 47. What are your biggest concerns due to COVID-19?

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* 48. How do you plan to do training in the COVID-19 era? (Select all that apply)

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* 49. As a Microscopy Core what are your key challenges due to the outbreak of COVID-19?
(Should be ranked from least to most concern)

  1 - Least Concern 2 3 4 5 6 7 - Most Concern
Loss of revenue
Staff morale
Training new users
Personnel Health
Decreased productivity
Scheduling complexity
Maintaining social distancing

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* 50. What PPE are required to use your core? (Select all that apply)

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* 51. How are you decontaminating your equipment during COVID-19? (Select all that apply)

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* 52. How often do you sterilize the equipment during COVID-19?

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* 53. Who sterilizes the equipment during COVID-19? (Select all that apply)

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* 54. For the completeness of the survey, please provide your contact information.

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* 55. May we contact you for a follow-up?

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