Policies & Responsibilities

A user of CIRC’s resources is a student, staff, or faculty member who holds a valid University of Rochester NetID for the purposes of accessing information technology resources at the University of Rochester and who has a computer account on one or more of CIRC’s computing systems.

A faculty sponsor of a user is a member of the faculty at the University of Rochester who oversees the research work of a student, research staff, or faculty user of CIRC computing systems. A faculty sponsor typically serves the role of a research advisor for a student or supervisor of a staff user. Faculty sponsors may be their own users if interacting directly with CIRC’s systems.

Faculty sponsors are investigators in a sponsored research project, which must fit at least one of the following defining criteria as defined by ORPA:

• the proposed work binds the University or the investigator to a specific line of inquiry;
• funding is contingent upon the University’s acceptance of a specific commitment, such as the stated level of personnel effort, stated deliverables (i.e., a report, patient case report, device, or prototype), or the achievement of specific performance targets or milestones;
• there is a line-item budget detailing or limiting expenses by activity function, or project period or by limiting the University’s freedom to transfer funds among expenditure categories;
• a detailed financial status report or external audit is required;
• any unexpended funds must be returned to the sponsor at the end of the budget period;
• the proposed activity involves the use of human subjects, laboratory animals, radioactive materials or isotopes, biological hazards, or recombinant DNA;
• the proposed agreement with the sponsor provides for the disposition of intangible property (e.g., rights in data, copyrights, patents, licenses, inventions, etc.), which may result from the sponsored activity or for the disposition of tangible property acquired during the project (e.g., equipment, supplies, drugs, materials, etc.)

Faculty sponsors of users of CIRC systems are responsible for all fees associated with utilization. Current rates are available on this page. Faculty who currently do not have funding to support these fees may submit requests to their respective Dean’s Office to cover these costs. Questions about fees should be directed to the Director of CIRC.

While the operational and maintenance costs of CIRC are partially funded by the School of Medicine and Dentistry and Arts, Science, & Engineering, in addition to the nominal annual fees charged to principal investigators, we encourage faculty sponsors to include any possible hardware, software, or personnel contributions to any future grant applications when appropriate. Faculty should contact the Director of CIRC to plan for future computational and storage needs.

Many scientific and technical software packages are licensed for a specific number and/or type of users. Faculty should discuss their software needs with CIRC staff, who help evaluate the number of licenses that will be needed, and whether additional licenses will be required. In general, it is the responsibility of the faculty sponsor or department requesting access to obtain funding for additional software licenses.

Faculty sponsors are responsible for ensuring that sponsored student and staff users are in compliance with all CIRC policies and all other information technology and research policies at the University of Rochester as related to CIRC systems usage.