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[anon_expat]

Has anyone had experience moving from one academic position to another? I am wondering what happens with the equipment and such purchased from start-up funding--does it travel to, or do those at the first institution divide the spoils?

Thanks!

[scotia]

Unless you had a very unusual deal, anything purchased with funds from a UK university is the property of the university and not of the individual for whom it was purchased. It therefore remains with the institution that bought it. Occasionally I have known universities allow staff to purchase computers from them at a price that reflects the depreciation on the machine (though there are tax implications), and one of my friends who moved managed to broker some sort of deal whereby his destination university bought some of the specialist equipment from his originating university, but that may have been possible only because the department he was leaving was closing and the university had no need for the equipment.

[wegie]

What Scotia said. Unless your contract specifies otherwise, it all belongs to the university who paid for it.

Some of them can be really stingy as well. Just because you think the kit is obsolescent doesn't mean that they'll sell it on to you rather than sticking it in the undergraduate lab :-(