Requesting Beam Time
Submitting a proposal is only the first part of the process for getting beam time at SSRL. Once a proposal is rated/approved for beam time, the spokesperson must request beam time for each scheduling period in which he/she is interested in running an experiment in order to confirm the amount of time needed and the dates available.
User Research Administration (URA) will send out a Call for Beam Time Requests to Spokespersons for all active proposals approximately two to three months in advance of each scheduling period. All proposals that are active for at least part of a given scheduling period are eligible for beam time during the entire period. The "Call" goes out as an email message to spokespersons with active proposals. Deadlines are announced on this website and under the User Research Announcements section of SSRL's monthly newsletter, Headlines. Experimenters are requested to submit their requests via the web by the stated deadline in order to be considered for that scheduling period.
Scheduling is done primarily on the basis of the proposal's rating (see ratings scales for X-ray/VUV and Macromolecular Crystallography proposals). A number of factors beyond the rating may come into play in making the final determination as to which proposals will receive beam time and on what beam line. This is driven by the scarcity of beam time and the large number of proposals of equally high scientific merit.
- Consideration may be given to graduate students completing their thesis work.
- If a single Spokesperson has several proposals that make the "cut" she/he will not necessarily be granted beam time for each of the proposals. The Spokesperson is free to choose which experiments she/he would like to run during the scheduled time.
