Applying for beamtime

** IMPORTANT INFORMATION **

Further to a decision of the ESRF Council, information concerning the scientific use of the ESRF will be provided to the Heads of Delegation of the Contracting Parties and Observers from Scientific Associate countries to the Council.

For detailed information on data provided (and additional information to be provided for all UK users) please click HERE

If you intend to submit a new Application for Beam Time, please note that you are required:

* to use the NEW TEMPLATE of the "Experimental Method Form" for a Standard Research Proposal;

* to make sure that the EXPERIMENTAL REPORTS registered as "relevant reports" in your new Application for Beam Time have been EFFECTIVELY submitted and registered in our data base. Please submit, as far as possible, experimental reports (if necessary preliminary reports) on your most recent experiments, even those carried out during the last 6 months preceding the proposal submission deadline, and register them in your new proposal(s) as "relevant reports".

Be aware that:


Applications for Beam Time submitted with the old template of the Experimental Method Form and/or supported by previous experiment(s) for which the report(s) - relevant report(s) - has/have not been submitted via the User Portal will not be awarded beam time by the Review Committees.

BEAMLINES and FACILITIES 

The ESRF UPGRADE PROGRAMME has already started. Please check the status of the beamlines and their availability for the next proposal deadline.

 
The public beamlines in operation at ESRF provide some 500 shifts of beam time each year for user experiments, after deducting machine-dedicated runs and maintenance days.  In addition, several externally funded, Collaborating Research Group (CRG) beamlines, make available 1/3 of their beam time to ESRF users.  During the year, two long shut-downs are scheduled: 4 weeks in winter and 3 weeks in summer. Beamlines at ESRF operate 24 hours a day in three shifts, each of 8 hours.

Important

Please note that the review committees will consider applications only for those beamline(s) which are requested on the proposal form. You are therefore requested to contact the scientists in charge of beamlines on which your project may be feasible, prior to submitting your application. If you are requesting a beamline for the first time, consultations prior to submission are essential.

USEFUL LINKS

• List of Beamlines
  

• Fields of Research
  

• Scientific Infrastructure Group: this group provides specialized support to users and develops new techniques in the areas of chemistry and micromanipulation, sample environments, and surface science. 
• list of support laboratories available to the users

APPLICATION FOR BEAM TIME

Two proposal review rounds are held each year, with deadlines for submission of applications on 1st March (inclusive) and 1st September (inclusive) for the scheduling periods August to February, and March to July respectively.

• Requests for beam time are based on shifts of 8 hours.  Allocations of beam time will usually be made in multiples of 3 shifts.
  
• Check your proposal with ESRF Beamline staff before submission.
  
  

Each application is assigned to a broad scientific domain and is submitted to a Review Committee.  Members of these committees are specialists in relevant AREAS OF SCIENCE and are appointed by the ESRF management.  

Scientific areas and review committees

ELECTRONIC APPLICATION FOR BEAM TIME

The APPLICATIONS FOR BEAM TIME must be submitted ELECTRONICALLY for the following categories of proposals and experiments:

Guidelines for electronic application forms for beam time

REVIEWED PROPOSALS

• STANDARD Research Proposals
• LONG TERM PROJECT Proposals (What is a Long Term Project?)
• BAG Proposals
  
• MX non-BAG Proposals (rolling access procedure)
  
  
  

NON-REVIEWED EXPERIMENTS

• TEST CRYSTALS Experiments

Before submitting a proposal for ESRF Beam Time, we strongly recommend that you first consult (and keep) the Proposal Guidelines specific to the category of your new proposal(s) very carefully, as these contain detailed instructions regarding the electronic submission of your proposal(s).

ASSESSMENT & BEAM TIME ALLOCATION

Beam time is allocated on the basis of scientific merit, following the recommendations of the Review Committees, and provided the experiment proposed meets technical feasibility and safety requirements.

The Review Committees, assisted by external referees where appropriate, consider the proposals: they first assign each proposal a grade between 0 and 5.5 on the basis of scientific merit, 5.5 being the top score. At their meetings, the committees discuss the projects, and arrive at a final grade for each proposal; they also rank the proposals in order of priority for each beamline. 

For Macromolecular Crystallography proposals, full details of samples mentioned in each proposal MUST also be provided to the ESRF, at the time an application is submitted, through the completion and submission of electronic Sample Sheet(s). Failure to provide this information in the correct format will mean an application will NOT be accepted.

Beam time for non-proprietary industrial research is available on the same conditions as university-based research; users from industrial firms however do not receive a contribution to their expenses.

SCHEDULING OF EXPERIMENTS

Following each meeting of the Review Committees, proposers are informed of the decisions taken.  If beam time has not been allocated, brief, general reasons only are given, as the ESRF does not enter into correspondence concerning decisions made by the scientific Review Committees.

When beam-time is allocated, invitations for experiments, together with detailed instructions, are then communicated to the Proposers concerned by the ESRF User Office several weeks ahead of the scheduled experiment.