Proposal Review

Items for Proposal Review

Submitted proposals are reviewed in accordance with Basic Policies regarding Proposal Selection for Public Beamlines established by the Registered Institution for Facilities Use Promotion.

Basic Policies regarding Proposal Selection for Public Beamlines

Items for Proposal Review vary depended on the type of Proposal.

• General Proposals
• Graduate Student Proposals
  1. Scientific and technical value 
  2. Degree of expectation to produce results.
  3. Necessity of SPring-8 as a research tool.*
  4. Conformity to the Science and Technology Basic Law and social norms: the implementation of the research proposal is appropriate in light of the Law and socially accepted ideas, e.g., the implementation of the proposed research and the use of research results are exclusively for peaceful purposes.
  5. Technical feasibility
  6. Safety of the experiment
• Proprietary Proposals
• Measurement service proposals (proprietary only)
• Time-designated proposals (proprietary only)
  • The review is only for above item No. 4,5 and 6.
• Non-Proprietary Priority Proposal
  • The review is only for above item No. 3,4,5 and 6.

In addition, there are additional review items for characteristic usage proposal with preferential treatment. For further information, please refer to the below.
*Item No.3 is positioned as a reference item in the review.

Details of review items

• General Proposals
• Graduate Student Proposal

1. Scientific and technical value 

• Regarding to item No.1 “Scientific and technological value,” the following points will be reviewed with particular emphasis
  • c) Social significance of the proposal and the contribution to the social economy
  • d) The proposed research has social significance and will contribute to the social economy.

In addition to the screening for general proposals, the following items are reviewed.

• The proposal has clear long-term research objectives and plans.
• The long-term and organized use of SPring-8 is required to satisfy one of the following
  • delivering outstanding scientific results in the field of science and technology
  • developing a new research area or a new experimental method
  • significantly improving industrial base technology

Flow of Proposal Review

Examples of General Proposals

1. Indivisual pre-screen by referees
   • Submitted proposals will be individually pre-screened by referees who are elected in each research field.
2. Proposal Review by the SPring-8 Proposal Review Committee (PRC)
   • Proposals are reviewed by each of the subcommittees established in the PRC for each research field.
   • The PRC will conduct a comprehensive review and prepare a draft proposal for each beamline.
3. Deliberation by the SPring-8 Selection Committe
   • SPring-8 Selection Committe deliberates on the proposals proposed by the PRC, and comments will be made to JASRI (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute).
4. Selection by the Registered Institution for Facilities Use Promotion(JASRI)
   • The Institution shall select proposals based on the results of the SPring-8 Selection Committee discussion.

• In the case of Proprietary Proposals and Non-Proprietary Priority Proposals, the individual pre-screen by referees and reviewing by the PRC subcommittees will be omitted.
• For Long-term Proposals, the initial screening is based on paper materials, and the second screening is based on interviews.