What Happens to a University Researcher's Gear?

Question

when a researcher receives a grant or a fellowship, buys something like an HPLC or NMR, what happens to the devices after the researcher has either retired, moved, quit, etc.

i would assume government grants contain clauses that describe the process by which these items would be donated or sold, but im wondering if there are certain grants that just allow a guy to bring an NMR back to his house and set up shop.

Answer 1

To tell you the truth, nobody wants to have an HPLC or NMR set up in their house or garage, and the cost of doing so, the liquid helium alone for the NMR would kill you financially. Plus what would you do with all the waste from the HPLC? And where would you store all the solvents. No, these are not questions or problems you want to bring home with you.

The worst culprit is computers! You wouldn't believe how many laptops, desktops, printers, and other devices I've seen just disappear that were intended for laboratory use.

And you must keep the labs locked because there is always someone around that would love to steal a $1500 top loading analytical balance!

Usually, if a professor loses his grant, all the money from the grant has already been spent on the equipment and the equipment belongs to the University UNDER his control.

If he leaves he loses that control. He can move the equipment to the new location, but it's usually easier and cheaper to just get another grant and buy a newer piece of equipment at the new place of employment (if they don't already have it) and go from there.

Answer 2

My understanding is that the gear reverts to the university. The university supports the prof in applying for the grant by attesting that there is already sufficient gear to do the work, and that only a little bit more is needed. When the next university hires the prof, it is because she is so famous from her first job, and the next university so wants to get her, that they offer "startup money." She buys more modern gear for her lab and applies for a new grant to buy new gear.

Universities never lose out. The prof has to include a university "overhead" on her grant, of 50%. That means that if she applies for a $300,000 grant, she must include $300,000 more as overhead, to pay the cost of the university's supporting her lab in their building, together with heat, light, and janitorial and secretarial services. Total grant, $600,000.