Policies

If you have any questions, please contact us at camri@unc.edu.

Scheduling/Cancellation Policies for 9.4T MRI

• Standard operating hours for staff-operated studies are from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Monday through Friday.
• A minimum advance notice of 48 hours is required for staff-operated studies, which will be scheduled pending scanner and staff availability. It is best to schedule all staff-operated studies as far in advance as possible
• 24-hour advance notice is required for rescheduling or cancelling staff-operated studies. Full price for the scan will be charged if not given said notice.
• All new studies must be initiated by submitting a Service Request Form, which must be submitted directly by the User. Upon reviewing the submitted form, Core staff will register the user’s scanner schedule through iLab.
• Scan charges are based on the time that is booked on iLab, including preparation and cleaning time. It is the responsibility of the user to check to make sure they are on the 9.4T calendar and to transport the animals to the scanning facility.
• At times when the scanner schedule is unable to accommodate all users, we reserve the right to ask that each user schedule no more than 15 hours per week on the scanner.

Training Policies

• Due to the high cost of the MRI equipment, extensive training is required for all PIs and their trainees that wish to conduct self-operated studies.
• Our core offers a training course for a fee that covers MR safety and basic system operation only (for more information, contact camri@unc.edu).
• After training, a core staff member needs to observe the user until the appropriate level of knowledge to run the scanner independently is demonstrated. The standard hourly staff fee will be applied.
• Only advanced users, as deemed by the CAMRI Director, are allowed to scan during off hours (i.e., evenings and weekends).

Service Policies for Image Acquisition and Data Management

• The Core provides image acquisition services for established protocols only (please see https://www.med.unc.edu/bric/camri/imaging-service for a list of imaging protocols).
• For nonestablished protocols, the users are responsible for developing and managing imaging protocols and hardware that are not used for standard service.
• Users are responsible for backing up their data.

Service Policies for Data Analysis

• The Core provides data analysis services using established protocols, including standard preprocessing (see https://www.med.unc.edu/bric/camri/analysis-service).
• The Core is not responsible for developing new data analysis protocols at this time.
• It is the user’s responsibility to provide guidance for the data analysis method, including specifying particular regions-of-interest (ROIs) for ROI-based analyses.
• The Core can provide standard figures for publication. It is the user’s responsibility to provide guidance on the figure.
• Once the user approves the analysis method and the analysis is underway, any modification (e.g., adding/changing ROIs, adding subjects, etc.) will be at an additional cost to the user.

Backup policies for 9.4T Data

• Raw data acquired during staff-operated sessions will be backed up to the network storage (managed by department, scalable) once per week by the core staff.
• For system maintenance purposes, data stored on the MRI scanner console that is older than one year may be deleted.
• The Core is not responsible for backing up raw data from self-operating users. Self-operating users are responsible for managing their own raw data backups.
• Converted and processed data will be maintained for up to one year after the final analysis report is delivered. Retrieval of archived data beyond active project status requires an additional service request and staff time, which will be billed at the standard hourly rate.
• Upon a user’s request for data transfer, data will be sent via Google Drive or a method proposed by the user. For security purposes, download instructions will be shared via email, and the files will be deleted after one week.
• The Core provides one complimentary full dataset transfer within two years of the final acquisition date. Subsequent transfer requests beyond the complimentary transfer are not guaranteed and may be subject to additional service charges.