Purchasing Software

What CSCS can do for you

CSCS does not sell software - there is a specialised team - Software Distribution -  which is part of University Information Services, who are responsible for negotiating software contracts and reselling them within the University. Nor can CSCS buy software on your behalf as Software Distribution need to know the identity of the end user for future communications.

However, CSCS can install software for you, or make it as easy as possible for you to install yourself. We can also deploy software on a large scale, for instance to whole research groups or to public or student clusters.

University Site Licences

If software is used throughout the University, then sometimes a site licence may be purchased. Often this will mean that the software is free for "Teaching Use" (use by either teachers and students - this includes both undergraduates and postgraduates)

Teaching vs Research Use

Since researchers spend money 'external' to the University, they will still have to pay to use the site licence. Unfortunately this applies to the majority of the Clinical School as we are mostly research. It is still usually cheaper than purchasing from a 3rd party.

To see if a software is site licensed, see this page http://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/devices-networks-printing/compsoft/sscc/SSCCsupportedlicences

Microsoft Site Licence

All CSCS supported computers are covered by a Microsoft Site Licence, This allows free upgrades to both Windows and Office (on both Windows and Mac). It also allows for up to 4 virtual PCs running Windows on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Purchasing Software Licences

The 'Academia for Education' portal should be your first port of call. It has various applications available for purchase including Adobe products, Endnote, etc. Please note you are buying the licence, not the CD / DVD / Installer. Once you purchase a licence, you will receive a link to download the software. If you are using a CSCS-supported computer, we recommend not using this, and instead installing from https://software.medschl.cam.ac.uk

If the software you want is not listed, try http://education.pugh.co.uk/

At the time of writing, STATA must be purchased directly from the developer: http://www.stata.com/order/

Do I pay VAT on my Software?

The general rule is that software that is at least partially used for medical or medical research purposes is VAT exempt. This rule does not apply to hardware, which must only be of medical research use to qualify as medically exempt).