The 18 months between August 1998 and January 2000, saw the opening for experiments of the full complement of 30 public beamlines, together with 8 additional beamlines operated by Collaborating Research Groups (CRGs). In parallel, requests for beam time and the number of users carrying out experiments continued to increase, as can be seen in Figure 144; this figure shows the number of applications for beam time and experiments carried out, together with the number of scientists who visited the ESRF since user operation began in September 1994.

Selection of proposals for experiments and allocation of beam time is made through peer review. Review Committees, comprising specialists from European countries, Israel, and the US, have been set up in the following scientific areas:

  • chemistry
  • hard condensed matter: electronic and magnetic properties
  • hard condensed matter: structures
  • life sciences
  • methods and instrumentation
  • soft condensed matter
  • surfaces and interfaces

 

The Review Committees met three times during the period, some six weeks after the deadlines for submission of proposals (1 March and 1 September each year). They reviewed a total of 2193 applications for beam time, and selected 1076 (49%), which were then scheduled for experiments.

One feature of this period has been the dramatic increase in the number of life sciences applications, particularly for macromolecular crystallography experiments. The opening for operation of four experimental stations on ID14, coupled with very rapid data collection times – frequently less than one shift – are opening up opportunities for user groups, and at the same time are challenging the support structure of the facility. Measures taken to assist macromolecular crystallography users include the possibility of testing crystals prior to preparing a formal application for beam time, and the introduction of a Block Allocation Group (BAG) scheme. This scheme, designed to encourage groups of users to block together their multiple requests for beam time, and likewise the scheduling of their experiments, is proving very successful.

Requests for beam time, which is scheduled in shifts of 8 hours, totalled 32,352 shifts or 258,816 hours for the period, of which 14,705 shifts or 117,640 hours (45.5%) were allocated; the distribution by scientific area is shown in Table 4.

This period has also seen 4655 scientists visit the ESRF under the user programme (see Figure 144); they carried out 1279 experiments. The breakdown of experiments carried out, by scientific area, is shown in Figure 145.