Set a recharge rate you can defend to the grants office.
A core recovers cost; it does not earn profit. Rate-setting that borrows clinical vocabulary (revenue, margin, reimbursement) is the fastest way to lose a conversation with a grants administrator.
What the model does with your menu
- Recharge, surplus and cost recovery throughout: the product never says "revenue" to a core.
- Cost per sample or per read, built from the actual workflow steps behind the rate.
- Funding model per workflow, fee-for-service or block budget or cost centre, so a mixed core rolls up honestly.
- The binding constraint across shared instruments and staff, so a rate reflects real capacity.
There is a fully-modeled research / core facility sample lab you can open right now. No signup, every number checkable, and a guided walkthrough that takes you to the answer.
Your archetype is a starting point, not a cage
If your lab sits on the border between two of these (most independent labs do) pick whichever is closest. Setup starts you with a lean set of capabilities for that archetype, and every other capability is a free switch you turn on until the model fits. Nothing is behind a tier, and nothing you turn on can be taken away by the choice you made on day one.
Built for the molecular lab: molecular IVD (PCR, syndromic panels, infectious disease) and clinical genomics. The same unit economics extend to broader-menu labs, but the molecular lab is who we build for.