Northwestern University has a history of cooperation with external clients including for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Cooperation is encouraged because it produces mutual benefits as well as benefits to society. This cooperation includes use of NU’s core facilities at appropriate external rates. If you are interested in using the instruments or services of a core facility, please contact the director or manager of the facility to inquire about availability. We strive to implement best practices when working with external researchers.
Northwestern University, University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are members of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC). These universities are partners in the Open Access Initiative that allows researchers at each university to use each other’s core facilities seamlessly. For information about specific instruments and services, please contact the manager of the core facility you wish to use. If you have administrative questions about how this works, please contact the Core Facilities Director at CoreFacilities-Director@northwestern.edu or the counterpart at your university.
Directors and managers of Northwestern’s core facilities who are considering accepting work from an external customer should read the document Processing a Service Request for an External Customer BEFORE agreeing to the work. These questions address issues related to external rates, research safety, risk management, material transfer, intellectual property, nationality and purchase orders. Please see this workflow chartto help guide external customer decisions.[NOTE: If external customers wish to visit your facility to perform work, they MUST demonstrate insurability by completing the “Volunteers and Visitors Lab Use Agreement” below.]
Below are examples of pre-approved “service” agreements (not research) for external customers that may be appropriate for core facilities
For examples of “research” agreements, please visit the INVO website.
Laboratory Service Agreement– expedited review is available for Agreements totaling $25,000 or less. Agreements MUST be signed by the Requesting Entity prior to submission to the Office for Research for approval.
The above referenced agreements can be submitted for signatures by completing the intake form via the Office of the Vice President for Research Intake Portal for Non Proposal Signature Requests. [NOTE: the intake portal is for internal use only. Signature request submissions are restricted to Core representatives that have reviewed said documents.]