CDW for Research Cost Structure
The CDW for Research operates as a BMC Research Core Facility. There is an hourly fee for data extraction services.As of October 2022, the CDW for Research charges:
- $100 per hour if funded by a BMC/BU account with government, not-for-profit, or internal discretionary funds, and
- $175 per hour if funded by industry/for-profit funder, or if account sits external to BU/BMC.
Research teams must identify a source of funding and supply the account number to the CDW for Research before a data request will be added to the CDW for Research’s work queue.Investigators can include the cost of CDW for Research services in their grant proposal budgets or can pay for services using internal funds, such as Department/Division funding or discretionary funds. The CDW for Research does not accept out-of-pocket payments.
If you are concerned about CDW for Research fees, please reach out to cdw@bmc.org to schedule a consultation. We provide quotes to include in grants or budgets and can work with you to keep costs within budget restrictions.
Billable Services
All project-specific activities and services beyond the initial free consultation are billable. Services including all data extraction coding, request follow-ups, data sets preparation, and modifications to existing data sets are billable.This includes consultations to further refine the work and develop variable definitions.Services for Which Fees are Waived
An initial consultation is provided to all studies free of charge.
If the project is a simple counts request to prepare a research proposal, the CDW for Research provides limited simple count services to investigators with the expectation that funding for further CDW for Research services are included in proposal budgets.
CDW for Research collaborations with Departments or Divisions may result in generalizable processes that benefit the CDW for Research and BMC as an institution. In these cases, the CDW for Research may waive a portion of its fees. Such projects are discussed with CDW for Research leadership.
Invoicing & Payment
The investigator and administrative contact receive one (1) invoice per delivered data set or quarter. For example, a project with a single data extraction will receive one invoice after the delivery of the data set. A project with recurring data extractions will receive one invoice per quarter that includes all analyst hours attributed to the supplied data set(s) during the quarter. Future data sets will not be provided to investigators until the CDW for Research receives payment for previously supplied data sets.
If you are paying from a BMC Cost Center: The CDW for Research bills in cooperation with BMC Research Operations, which processes all journal entries the first week of the month following invoice delivery. If you are paying from a BMC Cost Center, you will receive an invoice for your records. No further action is required; BMC Research Operations will automatically process the journal entry.
If you are paying from a BU account: If you are paying using a BU IO number, you will receive an invoice with instructions to create a purchase order (PO) and return the PO number to the CDW for Research. Please work with a BU staff person who has access to the Ariba system to generate the PO. The research team does not need to submit the invoice for payment. The CDW for Research will submit the invoice and the suppplied PO number on behalf of the research team to Boston Univeristy for payment.
If you are paying from an account that is not based at BMC or BU: Reach out to the CDW for Research to coordinate payment.