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 whether 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.
Maybe. 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 you will select the contents of your shipment as part of the process.
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. Requests of this type can usually be accommodated, but we’ll need to discuss the specifics prior to accepting payment to ensure legal compliance.
Yes, the contents of the shipment will be known before payment is due.
For convenience, 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.
If you are not satisfied with the value of the shipment or determine that moving forward is not in your institution’s best interest, you will have the option to cancel our agreement prior to making the payment.
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.
Possibly, depending on the import rules and regulations of your country.
Many countries 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 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 local customs clearing agent to clear the shipment through the port. Additional processes and associated fees, such as mandatory inspections or registrations, are possible depending on location.
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.
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 “necessary” can vary from one user to the next.
We realize that incomplete donations are not ideal, and we are working to address these issues where we can. Ultimately, however, we can only offer to our awardees what our donors have provided to us.
All of the information that we have about the components included with each item in our inventory will be available to you during the equipment selection process so that you can take these issues into consideration as you make your selections.
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, we can’t provide a list of available inventory until your selection window opens.
The reason 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.
Possibly. We’ll do our best to accommodate your freight preferences to the extent possible, with the understanding that you will be responsible for any costs in excess of the rates we would normally pay.
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, it may be possible for us to offer a discounted program fee; please contact us to discuss specifics.
Possibly. If you are accepted to the program, we may be able to arrange for your source to donate the items to Seeding Labs so that we can re-donate them to you.
However, there are some legal and practical constraints on this process, so 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. In-person visits are welcome but need to be arranged in advance so that staff can be on hand to assist you.
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, use, service, maintenance, and repair.
For videos of lab tips and tricks that may be of interest, please see our TeleScience platform.
Eligibility
One of our core beliefs at Seeding Labs is that every country should have access to the tools of modern science.
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. As a US-based NGO, we must obey US law. However, we do review eligibility annually, and our goal is to move towards inclusiveness if at all possible.
Current sanctions or other restrictions prohibit us from shipping to the following countries at present:
- Myanmar
- Cuba
- Iran
- North Korea
- Venezuela
No. Seeding Labs recognizes that valid needs for equipment may exist in other places, but Instrumental Access operates in eligible countries only.
Yes. Institutions and departments are welcome to re-apply as long as they remain eligible under the current guidelines and have sufficient additional need to justify a new shipment.
No. Applications can only be submitted on behalf of an eligible academic institution or research institute, 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 our process.
Instrumental Access is the best fit for universities and research institutes with diverse needs for lab equipment and supplies typically used in biology, chemistry, and closely allied fields.
Probably not. Rather than restricting eligibility by scientific discipline, we instead ask all applicants to review the categories of equipment that we handle and decide whether their needs align with what the program can supply.
Because our network of equipment donors is concentrated in the life science and biotechnology industries, a good fit outside of biology, chemistry, and closely allied disciplines is unlikely except under unusual circumstances.
If you would like to discuss specifics, please contact us.
Other application questions?
