Facility Policy
Samples
Not all samples are suitable for electron microscopy. Materials that might be a hazard to other users (including biohazards such as infective organisms, radioactive substances, and highly toxic materials) MUST NOT be brought into the FEMR. Other samples that are magnetic or contain organic or other volatile substances should not be inserted into the microscopes without first consulting with staff.
Reservations
An online scheduler is available at https://scheduler.campus.mcgill.ca/scheduler. Reservations are made in one-hour blocks. Do not share your account.
Training
Training on instruments and equipment is done by the staff of FEMR. Under no circumstances are users allowed to train other users on any of the instruments and equipment. Please complete and submit a project form for training. [English] [Français]
Priority Access to Instruments and Equipment
Staff of the FEMR have priority access to the instruments and equipment. It is expected that experienced students and PDFs will use the instruments and equipment during off-peak hours (evenings and weekends). As education is an important mandate of the FEMR, priority access is also made for academic courses requiring practical laboratories in electron microscopy (e.g. ANAT/MIME 542).
Daytime and after hours rates
Daytime is from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM weekdays. Evenings and weekends are charged at reduced rates, except where noted, for those who have 24 hour access approved by the facility staff.
Reservation of instruments
Authorized users may only book two four-sessions per week during daytime hours on all electron microscopes with the exception of the Titan Krios cryo-STEM and Helios Nanolab 660 DualBeam.
Cancellations
You will not be charged if you cancel your instrument reservation 24 hours or more prior to a scheduled session. You will be charged the equivalent of a two-hour fee if you cancel within 24 hours as other users are unable to make reservations for the time period and you are preventing them from using the instrument. Failure to show up for a session will result in being charged for the total time reserved.
Partly used reservations
If your session is not fully used, you will be charged according to reserved time. Do not book more time than needed. If you have a reservation, another user is prevented from using the instrument.
Unused reservations
If you do not use your session within 30 minutes of your reserved start time, another user may use the time period.
Instrument downtime
You will not be charged if the instrument is marked as down, even if you have reserved the instrument. You may request a waiver of the charge if the equipment is faulty, but not marked as down.
Reporting of equipment problems
Report problems with an instrument to staff of FEMR as soon as possible, otherwise you may be charged for your session. Fully describe the nature of the problem in the logbook. The Facility Manager will also evaluate if the usage charge should be reset due to the problem reported.
Questionable charges
Contact the lina.vuch [at] mcgill.ca (Lina Vuch) as soon as possible to discuss any questionable invoice charges. Adjustments must be completed within 90 days to comply with University policy.
Billing schedule
FEMR closes each month before sending instrument use charges to the supervisor or delegate. Charges are based upon logbook entries and/or online scheduler.