Call for 2022A General Proposals (excl. industrial application) Closed

Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) is calling for 2022A (April 2022 – August 2022, tentative) General Proposals (excl. industrial application). Interested parties are encouraged to apply. Please read the following instructions in full before preparing your application. For applications in the field of Structural Biology, please also refer to “2022A Operation of Proposals in the Field of Structural Biology“.
If you wish to submit a General Proposal for Industrial Application, please read the “Call for 2022A General Proposals for Industrial Application.”

Important

1. New Proposal Review Fields (PDF) will be applied to 2022A proposals. Please click here for details.
   Proposal application forms have also been updated, and “Equipment” needs to be selected in addition to “Beamline”. Detailed instruction is available here. Make sure to check “Choose from Beamline” and click “OK” when you select “Beamline” and “Equipment”. Please consult SPring-8 Users Office (sp8jasri@spring8.or.jp), in case you are not sure about “Beamline” or “Equipment”. If you select “Unknown/Others” for “Beamline” or “Equipment”, the review will proceed with the “Beamline” or “Equipment,” which seem the most appropriate.
   In addition, if you cannot find your preferable combinations of “Beamline” and “Equipment”, select “Unknown/Others” and notify SPring-8 Users Office by email of your preferable combinations of “Beamline” and “Equipment”.
   [For applicants choosing “Industrial Application” or “Humanities and Social Sciences” as Review Field]
   If you want to select the preferable equipment from beamline or in case the appropriate equipment is unclear, please check “Choose from Beamline” and click “OK” to choose Beamline/Equipment from pull-down menu at Basic Information on the application form.
2. Due to beamline restructuring, HAXPES will be the only measurement technique at BL46XU from the 2022A term. The multi-axis diffractometer installed at BL46XU will be relocated to BL13 XU after 2021B term. Furthermore, BL46XU was available only for proposals in Industrial Application Field till 2021B term, but BL46XU will also be available for proposals in other review fields in 2022A term.

Special Notes on COVID-19
Special policy will be applied to 2022A proposals in order to minimize the effects of beamtime cancellations due to COVID-19. Please make sure to check here.

Contents

1. Non-Proprietary and Proprietary Research

There are two types of research at SPring-8: non-proprietary and proprietary research. Users must publish their research result in a refereed journal or equivalent (refereed proceedings, Doctoral thesis, etc.), and are exempt from paying the beamtime fee if their research is non-proprietary. For research to be considered non-proprietary, users must submit a SPring-8 Experiment Summery Report within 60 days of the completion of each experiment to make the results available to the public. As for proprietary research, submitted proposals are reviewed only from the viewpoint of feasibility, safety, sociality, and ethics by a limited number of reviewers, who have accepted an obligation of confidentiality. Proprietary research is recommended for users dealing with confidential information or experimental samples.
Users may request the Users Office to switch the research type from non-proprietary to proprietary by shift unit within 60 days after the completion of the experiment or the end of the fiscal year (the end of March), whichever comes first.

2. Research Period

• [At All Public Beamlines except BL14B2, BL19B2 and BL46XU (excl. Industrial Application field)]
•     From April – August 2022 (tentative)
• [At BL14B2, BL19B2 and BL46XU (Industrial Application field)]
•     From April – mid-May 2022 (first period of 2022A)
• (We will call for proposals to be conducted during the second and the third periods of 2022A in March and May 2022, respectively.)

For proposals other than those in the field of Structural Biology with the use of PX-BLs, the beamtime will be allocated in 2022A (from April 2022 – August 2022, tentative). Refer to “2022A Operation of Proposals in the Field of Structural Biology” for the proposals in the field of Structural Biology with the use of PX-BLs.
To see beamlines available for 2022A beamtime by type of proposal, click here.

3. Beamlines and Beamtime Available to Users

For beamlines available to users and beamtime allocated to each beamline, click the link below. Please note that the numbers of shifts specified in the lists include the shifts allocated to General Proposals as well as newly approved proposals (Long-Term, Partner User, Non-Proprietary Grant-Aided, Epoch-Making Initiatives, and Long-Term Graduate Student Proposals).
If you wish to submit a non-proprietary General Proposal for Industrial Application with BL14B2, BL19B2, or BL46XU*, please read the “Call for 2022A General Proposals for Industrial Application.”

*BL46XU was available only for proposals in Industrial Application Field until 2021B but will be open to proposals in other review fields in 2022A. Please note that HAXPES will be the only available technique at BL46XU from 2022A.
For the proposals in the field of Structural Biology with the use of PX-BLs, be sure to refer to “2022A Operation of Proposals in the Field of Structural Biology” before applying.

Public Beamlines

RIKEN Beamlines

Please contact the Beamline Scientist of the desired beamline before applying for beamtime.

*Industrial Applications only.
**Users who wish to apply for BL41XU or BL45XU, make sure to read here.
***BL46XU will be open to proposals in all review fields from 2022A term.
****BL38B1 is available only for BioSAXS experiments.
*****Proposals for high-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering will automatically be considered for both BL35XU and BL43LXU: use BL35XU as the beamline choice.
Similarly, Nuclear Resonant Scattering proposals to BL35XU will also automatically be considered at BL19LXU.

CryoTEM

For the specifications and status of experimental stations, please check the Beamline List. To see what kinds of experiments have been performed at SPring-8, please refer to the SPring-8 Solution Database.
If you have no experience using the desired beamline or if you have questions about the experimental stations, please contact the Beamline Scientist of the beamline of interest before applying for beamtime.

4. Several Bunch Mode Operation

For several bunch mode operation, please refer to “1.4 Several Bunch Mode Operation in 2022A” in the “Call for 2022A SPring-8 Research Proposals – Overview -” or “Several Bunch Modes” of the SPring-8 Website.

5. Proposal Submission

Applicants/project leaders are required to submit proposals online through the web-based proposal submission system. Before starting the application process, please first carefully read the “Call for 2022A SPring-8 Research Proposals -Overview-.”

[Non-Proprietary Research]

User Information Website (UI site) > My Page Login > Create and edit the assignment application form > New > General Proposal

[Proprietary Research]

User Information Website (UI site) > My Page Login > Create and edit the assignment application form > New > General Proposal for Proprietary Research

If you are applying for proprietary beamtime, you need to submit a “Proprietary Use Agreement for Public Beamline”. Please download the agreement from the UI site, have it signed by the person who is responsible for the payment, and send PDF file to the SPring-8 Users Office by email no later than December 9, 2021.

For step-by-step instructions on how to submit proposals, click here.

[Industrial Application]

If you wish to submit a proposal for industrial application, be sure to follow the instructions detailed in the “Call for 2022A General Proposals for Industrial Application” (The information required on the online application form is different).

[Structural Biology]

When you plan to use PX-BLs and apply for proposals in the field of Structural Biology, be sure to refer to “2022A Operation of Proposals in the Field of Structural Biology” because different types of information are required to complete the application form.

6. Submission Deadline for Online Proposals

Thursday, December 2, 2021, 2:00 pm (Japan time)
(Proprietary Use Agreement: December 9, 2021)

To avoid last-minute technical problems and possible network congestion caused by heavy online traffic, you are strongly encouraged to complete and submit your application well in advance of the deadline. If you have trouble completing/submitting your application online, please contact the SPring-8 Users Office (see 12. Contact) before the deadline.
Upon successful submission, you will receive a confirmation email attached with a copy of the Agreement (Rules for Users) in PDF format. If you do not receive the confirmation email, please log in to the system and check if your proposal has been submitted successfully.

7．Proposal Review

7.1 Non-proprietary Research

The scientific and technological value, the degree of expectation to produce results, the necessity of SPring-8 as a research tool, the scientific feasibility, safety of the experiment, and ethics are comprehensively reviewed. If the research area of your proposal is Industrial Applications, the review of scientific and technological value will be focused on the potential and significance of the expected results in terms of technologies for industrial base, the social significance of the proposal, and the contribution to social economy.

7.2 Proprietary Research

Technical feasibility, safety of the experiment, and ethics of proposals are reviewed.

8. Notification of Review Results

Review results will be available in “My Page” of UI site at mid-February 2022.

9. Report Submission (Non-Proprietary Research Only)

Users are required to submit an Experiment Summary Report online within 60 days of their experiment. Submitted reports are made publicly available online two weeks after the report submission deadline for the last experiment of the term (60 days after the end of each half-year research term + two weeks). For details, click here.

10. Publication of Research Results (Non-Proprietary Research Only)

Publish your research in the form of a refereed journal (incl. refereed proceedings and Doctoral thesis), a SPring-8/SACLA Research Report refereed by JASRI, or a technical journal approved by JASRI, and register the published works with the Publications Database within three years from the end of the research term. In the publications, please clearly state that the results were obtained through the use of the SPring-8 specifying the relevant experiment title and number.
For details, click here

UI site > My Page Login > Register research results

11. Others

11.1 Fees

For information about beamtime fee and user fees, please see the “Call for 2022A SPring-8 Research Proposals – Overview –.”
Click here for more details about the user fees.

11.2 Complementary Use with SACLA, J-PARC MLF or HPCI including the K computer / the supercomputer Fugaku

We also invite SPring-8 non-proprietary General Proposals for complementary use with SACLA, J-PARC MLF (neutron facility) or HPCI including the K computer / the supercomputer Fugaku (public computational resource of High Performance Computing Infrastructure including the K computer / the supercomputer Fugaku). For details, please refer to the “Call for 2022A SPring-8 Research Proposals in Complementary Use with SACLA, J-PARC MLF or HPCI including the K computer / the supercomputer Fugaku“

11.3 Deadline for 2022B Proposals (next half-year research term)

Deadline for 2022B proposals (last half of fiscal 2022) is scheduled at early June 2022.

12. Contact