NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
SCIENTIFIC FACILITIES & TECHNOLOGY
NERC BIOMOLECULAR ANALYSIS FACILITY (NBAF)
STEERING COMMITTEE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE
The NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility comprises four Nodes (NBAF-Birmingham, NBAF-Edinburgh, NBAFLiverpool and NBAF-Sheffield) that provide support and collaboration for approved applicants from UK Universities
and Research Institutes. Like all NERC facilities, we are required to justify our existence in terms of our scientific
contribution. We therefore request that all successful applicants to the Facility agree to the following terms to ensure
that NERC and the relevant Node(s) of the NBAF are appropriately acknowledged.
Conditions of access to the Biomolecular Analysis Facility
1.
The support provided through NERC and the appropriate node must be acknowledged in all relevant publications
(e.g. “The laboratory work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Biomolecular Analysis Facility at the University of Sheffield.”). The correct acronym is “NBAF,” without dots.
2.
The contributions from NBAF staff should be appropriately acknowledged. When appropriate, this should take the
form of co-authorship, and first authorship by NBAF staff may sometimes be appropriate (e.g. in the case of
Technical Notes). Authors that have generated results as visitors should include the appropriate Facility address(es)
in their authorship affiliation (e.g. "& NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility, Department of Animal and Plant
Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK").
3.
Progress reports, in the form of requests for outputs and participation in a survey of users, should be provided when
requested (usually annually), and usually after completion of the project. Confidential copies of more detailed
results, for example on primer sequences and their utility, must be provided to the Facility when requested and in a
detailed report provided on completion of the work at the Facility.
4.
If the investigator fails to provide reports requested as described in (3) the following sanctions will be
implemented:
 no further applications to the NBAF will be accepted
 the failure to provide a report will be logged with NERC.
5. Completed drafts of all publications arising from work at the Facility must be provided to the appropriate Node(s)
Heads & Managers for comments AT LEAST 10 WORKING DAYS before submission for publication, to allow
any necessary input to be made and to ensure that the results obtained at the Facility are reported accurately and
correctly.
6.
To conform with NERC data policy requirements, all DNA sequence data generated should be submitted to the
appropriate international database (e.g. INDC, Dryad) as soon as possible or on completion of work done at a node
of the NBAF. Submitted sequences may be made confidential initially, but should be made public within 18
months or when published, if this is sooner. The NBAF may submit data on the user’s behalf and make them public
after 18 months.
7.
The NBAF and NERC expect users to make every effort to publish data obtained via a node of the NBAF within a
reasonable time. If the user has not made reasonable efforts to publish data (such as markers, EST sequences or
expression data) or make materials (e.g. primers, microarrays, cDNA libraries or clones) available within 18
months, then the Facility may make them available to the scientific community.
8.
Publication is the primary indicator of science supported by the NBAF and therefore an important means by which
the value of the Facility to the scientific community is judged. Investigators on an NBAF-supported project are
required to supply bibliographic references and/or copies of any publications (including PhD theses, posters and
non-refereed publications) that discuss, describe, or are otherwise dependent on the results achieved at an NBAF
node.
9.
Council accepts no responsibility or liability for materials submitted for analysis.
NBAF Conditions of Access Mar 2015
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