Experts for Hire

While the IGBB Service Center can perform low-risk, fairly routine biomolecular tasks on a fee-per-service basis, some of your research goals may require (or would most readily be completed with) the help of professionals trained in advanced procedures and/or data analysis techniques. The IGBB research associates, most of whom have Ph.D. degrees and/or many years of practical experience, can be hired to conduct research tasks associated with their specialties. For example, let's say you need an expert in RNA isolation and RNAseq to help you complete a portion of a research project. You could train a student or postdoc to become proficient in these research tasks, but you may not have the experience, time, or money to train someone. Moreover, you may not have the instrumentation you need to do the research correctly. This is where the IGBB can help. Rather than training someone new, you can hire a highly skilled IGBB scientist to perform the research for you. The savings in cost and time is tremendous! The process works like this:

• The principal investigator (PIs) interested in determining whether the IGBB can help them in their research/analyses contacts one of the IGBB's Research Leads.
• The Research Lead(s) sets up a meeting with the PI to discuss project goals, feasibility, and approaches.  This consultation is free.
• If the PI and the Research Lead agree to a research plan, the Research Lead will generate an itemized quote for the PI that includes salary, fringe, reagent costs, machine costs, etc.  The duration of the employment agreement depends upon the needs of the customer and can range from a few hours to several months. In addition, IGBB employment agreements can cover fairly low weekly time committments spread out over long stretches (e.g., a customer may hire an IGBB employee to work on a project 5 hours a week for four years). Overhead charges and/or HPC² retainage costs may or may not be applicable.  Once a plan is set between a PI and an IGBB Research Lead, a final quote will be sent to the PI for approval. Once the PI approves the quote, work can begin.

If you don't have funding in hand, but are working on a grant proposal, you can include the participation of an IGBB expert-for-hire in your proposal budget (note: you must make such agreements with the expert-for-hire through a IGBB itemized quote). To discuss a hiring an IGBB expert, please contact one of the IGBB's Research Leads by phone or e-mail.