From owner-chemistry {*at*} ccl.net Tue Dec 14 20:08:00 2010 From: "Vincent Leroux vincent.leroux%x%loria.fr" To: CCL Subject: CCL: Average Computational Chemistry Contract Research Fees Message-Id: <-43388-101214163654-6284-nhEyffwV37fMKFClgKhehw---server.ccl.net> X-Original-From: Vincent Leroux Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:36:45 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Sent to CCL by: Vincent Leroux [vincent.leroux%x%loria.fr] Tips from an academic who did not yet come to see if the pastures are greener on the other side of the fence (and feeling very uncertain about that, despite currently running out of grass) - for what it is worth You should go to the next big conference and picture yourself as a representative for some company to the stands - not here for signing something big right know, but to check the temperature before reporting to the heads. If you bring some example cases of "things we are considering right now", I guess the Chindian companies will easily give you the median prices as a first proposal. As this is all contract-based, I suppose that in many cases there is no such thing as daily rates - rather more or less stringent deadlines that will influence the price of the whole package. If there are some highly-demanding computations involved, this is another big factor... In any case, the amount of work you will do is nothing - this is all related to the cost of things done internally compared to what you ask for to get the job done... you have to be cheaper, but not too much, or you might not be taken seriously even with some solid references. In addition, you would also have the opportunity to discuss with your possible future clients - feel free to present yourself as an academic then, just curious about things are working on the dark side with all this externalization going on. You might be discouraged by how many possible future clients turn all of a sudden into possible future competitors ;-) In any case, you should have some kind of network in the industry already, or at least know some academics that went there and could provide you with more detailed information. You seem pretty courageous, as to plan turning into a contractor without much experience! Good luck. VL Le 14/12/10 17:16, A C Sykes adam.sykes^_^quanano.co.uk a écrit : > Sent to CCL by: "A C Sykes" [adam.sykes(_)quanano.co.uk] > I am looking into branching out into the contract research field. However, I am unsure of the average fees charged for such services, as I am from an academic research background. > > The various companies that offer this service do not publish their fee structures. I am sure quotes are given on a per contract basis, but there has to be a guiding hourly/daily rate which can be used for quoting. > > Thank you for your help. > >