Sessions at Special Rates
1. PolyU PIs are eligible for booking up to 10 hours of free sessions for acquiring pilot data for the purpose of bidding external grants.
2. The UBSN may offer a special charging rate for PIs who lack external and internal research funding support at the discretion of the UBSN director.
3. External users are responsible for any other costs such as additional insurances incurred.
Booking and Billing Policies
1. Once a project is approved, the PI or their staff may log in to the booking system to make bookings for the project. Bookings can grow in 30-minute increments.
2. Each PI can book a maximum of four hours per day.
3. (During Highly-demanding period only) Each research group can only book:
(1) a max. of 20 hours per calendar month for each PolyU PI;
(a) Projects with external funding can apply for additional booking limitations: adding 1 hour for every HK$ 1 million of funded amount (round off).
(b) A max. of 5 additional hours can be added to each project with relevant supporting document.
(2) a max. of 15 hours per calendar month for each collaborative project (PolyU PI with external users);
(3) a max. of 10 hours per calendar month for external PI.
4. Bookings can be made at the earliest one month in advance.
5. If a group cannot make a successful booking for 2 consecutive weeks, UBSN will arrange 1 session (for 1 participant) for the group.
6. Cancellations made 7-3 days in advance will be charged at 25% of scanning fee. 50% of scanning fee will be charged if cancellation is made 72-48 hours in advance. Cancellations less than 48 hours in advance will be fully charged.
7. If a research group makes cancellations less than 24 hours in advance (or no show) 3 times within a 30-day period, the MRI booking system access right of this group will be suspended for 2 weeks.
8. Bookings will be cancelled without a refund if the users/participants are more than 15 mins late.
9. Each MRI session can be extended by no more than 15 mins if there is a following booking.
10. The UBSN reserves the right to make final decisions on determining which group a user would belong to and whether a discount rate is to be offered to any user.
11. The PI will be billed for the greater of the amount of scanner time reserved, or the actual time used.
12. Monthly invoices will be sent to users for endorsement. Fees of PolyU users will be collected through the Finance Office. Non-PolyU users pay by cheque made out to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and sent to Room ZB221, Block Z, University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom.
13. Repeated violations of usage procedures may lead to the suspension of access to the scanner.
*Other universities include UGC-funded universities, self-financed local universities, non-local universities, and the HKSAR government.
