UPDB - Services and Fees

The Utah Population Database (UPDB) is used in biomedical and health research. Pedigree and Population Resource (PPR) personnel are available to consult about research design and use of the database. This facility operates a recharge center to partially offset the fixed expenses of UPDB.

Have a New Idea?

• Investigators may schedule an IDEA (Initiating Data Exploration and Analysis) meeting at no charge.
  • Discuss your research ideas with experts at UPDB and RGE
  • Send an email to idea.updb@hci.utah.edu to submit your research ideas and UPDB will reach out and schedule a meeting
• Investigators may receive summary-level data prior to IRB approval
  • Assess feasibility or generate preliminary results for your research ideas
  • Requires “pre-research” approval from RGE Director: New RGE Pre Research Request
  • Cost:
    • $600 setup fee (equivalent 4 hours), then $150/hour after setup, if necessary
    • 4 hours forgiven for pilot grant applications (if subsequent application includes budget for UPDB)
    • 12 hours forgiven for extramural grant applications (if subsequent application includes budget for UPDB)

Billable Services

• Creation of custom de-identified data sets
• Analysis to test for familial aggregation of disease and estimation of familial risks
• Identification of high risk families
• Construction of pedigree drawings of specified kindreds
• Linkage of data sets provided by investigators to UPDB
• Provision of follow-up information to ongoing studies
• Consult about research design and use of the database and software
• Technical report writing and manuscript preparation
• Project meetings

UPDB Cost Model

The cost model for UPDB services is changing to reflect the fundamental work unit of the UPDB, the request. Our new cost model will be implemented from July 1, 2023.

• Setup fee is per request. $3,000 for FY24 (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024) 
  • Levied when UPDB staff begin setup work on the request
  • Covers:
    • Initial meetings/communication
    • Creation of an investigator-UPDB agreed statement of work (SOW) which details the study design (SD), analysis plan (AP), and data extraction plan (DEP)
    • Good faith detailed budget estimate for SOW
    • Good faith timeline to complete SOW
    • Regulatory review and advice for amendment, as necessary
  • Not an annual charge. The setup fee is a one-time fee to develop the deliverables listed.
  • No additional general access or data source-specific access fees. Access to all necessary UPDB data sources are included.
  • Analysis-only requests have a reduced setup fee of $600. Analysis-only requests do not include data pulls/linkage. Examples of analysis-only requests are: access to UPDB statistical or geography expertise; additional analysis on previously pulled datasets.
  • Change in scope requests have a reduced setup fee of $600. UPDB will consider extensions to an existing request. If determined to be a minor change of scope, changes in scope will be annotated as addenda to the existing SOW, good faith estimates and timelines and regulatory review will be updated.
• Hourly rate: $150/hour for FY24 (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024) - (unsubsidized UPDB operational cost is $400/hr)
  • Billed monthly, after setup 
  • Hours spent by UPDB staff after the setup phase and consistent with the SOW will be logged and invoiced
    • Includes: programming, data extraction, quality control, communication, analysis, interpretation, reports, and scientific writing.
  • Setup fee and hourly rates will increase annually each FY (July 1) concomitant with overall cost increases for UPDB.
    • Estimated at ~3% per year.