FAQs for equipment applicants
Application process
Please complete and submit the form on our Application page.
We do not accept applications in any other format. Please do not email proposals or equipment requests to us; they will not be reviewed.
You can expect to hear if your application has been selected to advance to the interview round by about 1 month after the nearest application deadline at the time you submit. All applicants will be notified of their status at that time.
If you are invited to move to the interview stage, we will provide additional information about decision timing.
Program fees & other costs
No, absolutely not. There is no monetary cost associated with the application process.
We ask only that applicants are ready and willing to pay the program fee if selected to participate in the program.
Unfortunately, no. The program fee is mandatory and covers a significant portion of our operating costs. We rely on these funds as a part of our annual budget and would not be able to keep the program running without them. We do not have additional funds available to subsidize these costs.
Our policies don’t prohibit this, but the design and timing of the program cycle make it difficult to meet the requirements of many external funders.
Specifically, we can’t provide a letter of support promising to work with you until you have been accepted to the program, and we can’t accept you into the program without a commitment to pay the fee.
In addition, many external funders will want to know the contents of your shipment before they commit to paying for it. This is a reasonable requirement on their part but not compatible with how the program works, as none of us will know the contents of your shipment until you have completed equipment selection.
If you do intend to try to raise funds externally, please contact us at application@seedinglabs.org to discuss your plans before taking any public action that directly involves Seeding Labs, such as crowdfunding using our name or logo.
Probably. This can be arranged in most cases, but we’ll need to discuss the specifics prior to accepting payment to ensure legal compliance.
We invoice for the program fee when you begin selecting equipment (or earlier at your request). Payment is due after the end of the selection period, just prior to shipment.
So, yes, the contents of the shipment will be known before payment is due. If you are not satisfied at that point with the value of the shipment, you will have the option to cancel our agreement. We encourage you to do whatever you determine is in your institution’s best interest and ask only that you notify us promptly.
However, please note that the interval of time between when shipment contents are finalized and when payment is due will not be sufficient to navigate a protracted approval or application process. If the contents of your shipment must be known before the money for the program fee can be allocated, Instrumental Access is probably not a good fit for your institution.
It depends on your country’s specific import rules and regulations.
Many governments do offer waivers from customs duties for donations intended for educational and/or research purposes. If this type of waiver is available in your country, we will work with you to provide the documentation you need to apply for it.
We are not qualified to give legal advice, but we may be able to provide insight based on past experience of our awardees in specific countries upon request. In addition, we recommend that you check with your institution’s procurement office or other experts in your country for advice about the specific regulations that may apply to your situation.
Again, it depends on your country’s specific import rules and regulations. At a minimum, you will probably need to hire a customs clearing agent to clear the shipment through the port. Additional processes and associated fees, such as mandatory inspections or registrations, are possible in some locations.
Equipment and logistics
It depends on the item. We pass on to you everything that our donors provide to us, including accessories, software, spare parts, etc.
However, it isn’t always possible for donors to include everything necessary for use in the donation. In particular, software is often difficult for our donors to transfer, either because the licenses are non-transferrable or for information security reasons or both.
We realize that “incomplete” donations are not ideal, and we are making every effort to address these issues where we can. However, we can only offer to our awardees what has been donated to us.
Further complicating the issue, for some items in our inventory, specific accessories and parts are designed to be customized to specific use cases. This means that the definition of “complete” can vary from one user to the next.
Any information we have about what is included with each item in our inventory will be available to you during equipment selection so that you can take these issues into consideration as you make your selections. In addition, our staff will be available to consult. If you have questions about specific items, please ask!
Yes. The total amount of equipment that each awardee can select is limited by two constraints:
- Volume. All of the items you select must fit into a 20-foot shipping container; and
- Points. We assign a “points” value to each item in our inventory based on our typical supply and demand, as well as its monetary value. For example, a case of consumables or glassware, might be valued at 5-10 points, while an HPLC system might be 500. Each awardee gets the same allocation of points to shop with. The purpose of this system is to ensure equal access and avoid excessive depletion of our inventory.
No, it is our policy not to provide a list of our available inventory until the selection window opens.
The reason for this policy is simple: to do so would be misleading. Our inventory changes on a weekly basis as equipment donations are received and shipments to other awardees are fulfilled. So what we have in the warehouse as you read this web page is not what will be available next week or next month, nor is it necessarily representative of what is “usually” available.
We always have a wide variety of equipment, glassware, and consumables in stock, but the exact composition of our inventory is always changing. Our staff can provide you with educated guesses about the likely availability of specific items based on historical donation patterns, but we can’t make any promises about availability until your selection window opens.
In most cases, yes. If the donor provides us with a paper copy of the manual, we’ll include it in the shipment. In addition, once we know the contents of your shipment, we will search for and compile electronic copies or links to the relevant manuals for the items in your shipment.
Seeding Labs carries insurance against any loss or damage that may occur during the shipping process while the shipment remains under our control. This type of damage should be reported within 10 days of receipt so that we can file a claim with our insurance provider.
Any damage that occurs after the shipment clears port would be your responsibility as the consignee.
Yes, you can participate, although you may need to budget for some additional freight costs.
If selected, we would work with you to identify the best shipping option for your specific location. If there’s a cost difference between that option and what it would have cost us to ship to the nearest ocean port via our normal process, we’ll ask you to pay the difference.
Possibly. We’ll do our best to accommodate your preferences to the extent possible, with the understanding that we will ask you to pay for any costs in excess of the best rates that our usual freight forwarders can provide.
Please note that the weight and volume of a typical shipment makes air freight prohibitively expensive in almost all cases.
If you choose to arrange and pay for your own international freight, we are open to negotiating a discount to the program fee specific to your situation.
Possibly. If you are accepted to the program, it’s likely that we can arrange for your source to donate the items to Seeding Labs with the understanding that those items will be reserved for your shipment.
However, as there are legal and practical constraints on this process, we would need to discuss the details of your particular situation before we can say for sure.
Yes. Our warehouse is located around 30 miles south of Boston in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA. Visits can typically be arranged as long as we have reasonable advance notice.
No, we don’t currently have the capacity to offer training or technical assistance within the Instrumental Access program. Awardees are solely responsible for equipment set-up, calibration, service, maintenance, and repair.
For videos of lab tips and tricks that may be of interest, please see our TeleScience platform.
Eligibility
The list of eligible countries is based primarily on the World Bank income classifications. Almost all countries that are classified as low- and middle-income by the World Bank or eligible for World Bank lending are eligible for Instrumental Access.
A small number of low- or middle-income countries are excluded from eligibility for legal reasons. Please see the next question for more details.
One of our core beliefs at Seeding Labs is that everyone should have access to the tools of modern science.
However, as a US-based NGO, we are bound by US law, which places a few limits on where we can operate. Current sanctions or other restrictions prohibit us from shipping to the following countries:
- Burma
- Cuba
- Iran
- Iraq
- North Korea
- Syria
- Venezuela
We review the list of excluded countries annually, and our goal is always to move towards greater inclusiveness if at all possible.
One of our core beliefs at Seeding Labs is that everyone should have access to the tools of modern science.
However, as a US-based NGO, we are bound by US export law, which places a few limits on where we are allowed to operate. Specifically, current sanctions prohibit us from shipping to the following countries:
- Burma
- Cuba
- Iran
- Iraq
- North Korea
- Russian Federation
- Syria
- Venezuela
We review the list of excluded countries annually, and our goal is always to move towards greater inclusiveness if at all possible.
No. Seeding Labs recognizes that valid needs for equipment may exist in other places, but Instrumental Access operates in eligible countries only.
Yes. You may apply again as long as your institution remains eligible under the current guidelines and you have sufficient additional need.
If the same department is applying for a second shipment, your application should include a clear explanation of your rationale for re-applying.
No. Individuals, lab groups, and research projects are not eligible to apply on their own. Applications can only be submitted on behalf of an eligible subdivision (usually an academic department), and it must be clear that the benefits would extend beyond a single individual, research group, or project.
Probably not. We ship full containers rather than individual items, and we’re looking for awardees with needs that align with what we can provide.
Also, the more specific your needs are, the less likely it is that we’ll have on hand the exact item you’re looking for when it’s your turn to select.
Instrumental Access is the best fit for institutions with diverse needs in the disciplines we support (biology, chemistry, and closely allied fields) who can make use of what we can supply: a shipping container full of equipment and supplies.
Other application questions?
