General User Proposals

Beam Time Cycles and Proposal Submission Deadlines

There are several proposal submission cycles and deadlines depending on research area, beamline capabilities, and techniques:

Physical Sciences (formerly General Sciences)
Beam time in the physcial sciences runs in two annual cycles; the proposal submission deadline (in bold) is 5.5 months before the beginning of the new cycle.
- July 15: January-June cycle
- January 15: July-December cycle
National Center for X-Ray Tomography (NCXT)
Rapid access NCXT beam time requests must be submitted by the 15th of January, March, May, July, September, November for a two-month run cycle beginning one-and-half months after the submission deadline (i.e., successful proposals submitted
January 15 will have beam time between March 1 and April 30).
Structural Biology/Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS)
Rapid access structural biology and SAXS beam time requests must be submitted by the15th of January, March, May, July, September, November for a two-month run cycle beginning one-and-half months after the submission deadline (i.e., successful proposals submitted January 15 will have beam time between March 1 and April 30).
Upcoming Deadlines
- August 15, 2009: October 6-December 23, 2009
  Note: This deadline and cycle are altered owing to September 2009 shutdown.
Approved Programs (AP)
All AP proposals are submitted directly to the ALS Scientific Advisor and reviewed through the peer review process before AP status is granted. The deadline for submission of AP proposals will be 30 days prior to the deadline for general user (physical sciences) proposals.

Submit a Proposal

Additional Information

New Proposals
General users are invited to submit requests for beam time at the Advanced Light Source by completing a proposal and request for beam time form for the physical sciences, structural biology and SAXS, or National Center for X-Ray Tomography (NCXT). Guidelines for completing this form, contact information, and a description of the review process are detailed below.

Active Proposals
Users interested in maintaining a proposal that has been submitted for a previous beam time cycle will be notified by the User Services Office if their proposal is eligible for renewal. See Maintaining an Active Proposal for additional information.

Safety
Safety is a critical function for all research performed at at the ALS. All users and staff are expected to know and follow applicable safety requirements at all times. For information about user and experiment safety, please see the ALS User Advisories and the Safety at the ALS Web pages.

Proposal Review Process

All submitted proposals are reviewed by:

ALS personnel for technical feasibility and safety
external reviewers
the Proposal Study Panel (PSP), which rates the proposals following the criteria endorsed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in the IUPAP Recommendations for the Use of Major Physics Users Facilities (pdf), and makes recommendations on the requisite beam time

For an overview of the review process, see the Experiment Proposal and Review Path for General Users flowchart. Additional information about proposal procedures and policies is available in User Policy at the Advanced Light Source.

Responses to the proposals are given about three months after the submission deadline. Each proposal is given a numeric rating that is then communicated to the investigator along with comments from the PSP. In some cases, a cutoff score, below which no beam time is allocated, is determined for oversubscribed beamlines. This score will be published on the Web so that general users may decide whether to rewrite their proposal, remove it, or keep it in the active pool. The most recent proposal scores for all beamlines and cutoff scores (where applicable) can be viewed at:

General Users: Scoring Information and Results
(General Sciences)

Allocating Beam time for General Users

Once all proposals have been reviewed and assigned a score, beam time for general users is scheduled by the ALS User Services Office in consultation with the beamline scientist. This process is overseen by the ALS Scientific Advisor. The available beam time is allocated according to the rank order of score, i.e., beginning with the best score and continuing until the beam time allotment for general users has been met. (Cutoff scores, below which no beam time is allocated, vary by beamline.) A summary of the final beam time allocations is sent to the relevant PSP, and the beam time scheduling dates are finalized by the beamline scientist in consultation with users.

Score Normalization
On highly oversubscribed beamlines, proposals that receive similar scores close to the cutoff score are subject to "bumping" procedure that is maintained at the discretion of the PSP. For additional information and an example of this process, see Score Normalization in Beam time Allocation.

Approved Programs

An Approved Program enables an investigator or a group of investigators to receive an assured percentage of beam time for a period of a few years to carry out an extended program of research. It is generally expected that the investigator(s) will bring in some resources that enhance the capability of the facility. Details about Approved Programs can be found in the ALS User Policy, Section 3 .

Maintaining an Active Proposal

All proposals for beam time will have the option to remain active for two years (i.e., four six-month cycles). Users with proposals eligible for renewal will be notified by the User Services Office during the regular proposal submission cycle.

Additional Information

For information about beamlines available to general users or PRTs, contact

User Services Group Leader
Advanced Light Source, MS 6-2100
Berkeley Lab
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: 510-486-7727
Fax: 510-486-4773

For information on proprietary research, contact
ALS User Services Office
Advanced Light Source, MS 6-2100
Berkeley Lab
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: 510-486-7745
Fax: 510-486-4773