Researchers can book scanning time directly in the CUBIC Calendar. The CUBIC booking calendar can be accessed here:
https://www.supersaas.com/schedule/cubic/Scanner_Booking_System?view=month
Note: Before scans can be booked for a new project, users must follow the steps outlined in the New starter guide document.
Please get in touch with Ari (MRI Operations Officer; ari.lingeswaran@rhul.ac.uk), if you require login credentials.
Scanning with the support of an MRI technician can be booked directly in the CUBIC Calendar weekdays between 9am – 4.30 pm. This is defined as prime-time scanning.
Prime time scanning days are shared across the partner institutions and are allocated as follows:
Scanning outside of prime-time hours should also be booked in the CUBIC Calendar. This can be any day of the week or the weekends, on a first come first served basis for all users.
Note: Scanning participants requires two Authorised Persons (one must be fully-qualified) and at least one of the APs must be an employee of one of the institutions. During prime time, Ari (or his substitute) counts as one fully qualified AP and the user has to provide one additional AP; during out-of-hours scanning, users must provide two APs (see: Section 4 of the CUBIC Rules of Operation). Users can also use the Participants and APs wanted or available forum on the CUBIC Wiki to search for alternative APs, and also post in the #ap-needed channel of Slack.
To find out how to become a CUBIC AP please consult Procedure for becoming an approved MRI operator (AP) and Appendix 2 in the CUBIC Rules of Operation.
Once you logon to the CUBIC calendar, to make a booking follow the instructions here.
*RHUL users: please note that cancellation charges may apply – please consult the Charges and cancellation policy before cancelling bookings.
Non-RHUL users: Login to the booking calendar and click on your booking, then click the Update button in the upper righthand corner and then click on the date of the event in the calender. Click on the “Delete event” button for the booking to remove it. RHUL users: Please follow the guidance in the Charges and cancellation policy document.
To notify other users of a cancellation, please post a note on the Scan cancellations & time swap forum forum on the CUBIC Wiki. It is also good practice to notify other users via the CUBIC Slack channel #participant-cancel, in case others can use it. Contact Ayan Sengupta (ayan.sengupta@rhul.ac.uk) or Carl Hodgetts (carl.hodgetts@rhul.ac.uk) to be added to the Slack group.
Users should try to avoid booking more than one day (or half day) every weekend and, where feasible, avoid booking more than four days/half days in advance to ensure that all CUBIC partners have equal access to the restricted weekend scanner time (for instance, for scanning school-age children and adolescents). In cases of high demand for weekend and evening scanning the management committee will allocate slots taking into account the study requirements with priority being given to funded studies, PGR projects, ECR projects and studies that are underway. The partner institution with the lowest weekend scanner usage will be given preference in the event that weekend/evening booking conflicts arise.
If there is a bottleneck due to high usage by another PI and/or institution, in the first instance please contact a) that PI and b) the partner representative for the PI’s institution, to discuss how to accommodate scanner time fairly between users. If the informal approach isn’t effective and bottlenecks remain then the Management Committee will allocate time.
It is possible to organise swaps (hours or even a day) with the other partners to scan on their allocated days. Please email the relevant partner representative (see Contacts) to arrange such a swap (and please cc Ari ari.lingeswaran@rhul.ac.uk so he is aware of the request). Note: there is an expectation of being ‘paid back’ within one month of the swap and this can create additional bottlenecks, so please try to avoid swaps unless necessary. Time swaps are booked the normal way in the calendar but must be clearly logged as swaps. In addition, any time swaps must be announced on the Scan cancellations & time swap forum forum on the CUBIC Wiki.
Unused scanner time on other partners’ days may be booked by users from another partner institution 2 days before the scan (i.e., no earlier than 48h in advance). Users can only make provisional bookings until 24h before the scan; during this time, users from the institution that “owns” the time have priority and can cancel a provisional booking. From 24h before the scan, any user can make a firm booking of unused time. RHUL users will be charged at the standard rate for these bookings. There is no requirement to “pay back” such bookings through a formal time swap, but users must post a note on the CUBIC Wiki “Scan cancellation & time swap” forum to notify other users of such bookings (in addition to booking through the calendar, see below).
To make a provisional last-minute booking (48-24h in advance of the scan), make a booking as usual in the calendar but do not reserve a time slot (leave those fields blank). Instead, indicate in the description what time slot you wish to book and include your email so that you can be contacted about any cancellations. 24h before the scan, you can edit the booking by filling in the start and end time fields; the booking is now final and cannot be overwritten by another user. Last-minute bookings made less than 24h before the scan are made in the same way as normal bookings. Last-minute bookings should be indicated as such in the calendar in the description field (e.g., type “Last-minute booking by XXX university”).
If you are a user from the institution that “owns” the time and want to use the time slot, you can simply ignore a provisional booking and book a time slot as usual, but please as a courtesy email the user who made the provisional booking to inform them that their slot has been cancelled. Final last-minute bookings cannot be cancelled by other users, and (for RHUL users only) normal cancellation charges (see the Charges and cancellation policy) apply to these bookings.