Call for 2022B Non-Proprietary Grant-Aided Proposals Closed

Important
Starting in the 2022B term, the following nine beamlines invite proposals six times annually:
BL01B1, BL02B1, BL02B2, BL09XU, BL13XU, BL14B2, BL19B2, BL46XU, and BL47XU* (*BL47XU will allocate only a few shifts for the 2^nd and the 3^rd period.)

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

Contents

1. What is the Non-Proprietary Grant-Aided Program?

The Non-Proprietary Grant-Aided Program is intended for research proposals that require the use of SPring-8 and have already been reviewed and approved for a research grant. Under the program, the proposals will be granted an exemption from scientific review; only the safety and technical feasibility of the experiment, the necessity to use SPring-8, and ethics (e.g. exclusively for peaceful purposes) are considered. The beamtime for this program is limited to 20% of user beamtime for each beamline (at RIKEN beamlines, 20% of each user beamtime for public use). The maximum beamtime allocated to a single research grant is half the limit above, including cases where more than one proposal have been submitted.

Interested and qualified parties are encouraged to apply. Please prepare your proposal application using the following guidelines and instructions.

2. Period of Research

[At Beamlines with biannual calls for proposals]

　From October 2022 to February 2023 (tentative)

[At Beamlines with sixannual calls for proposals]

　From October to mid-November 2022 (first period of 2022B)
　Please note that proposals requiring special conditions, such as bunch mode designation, may not necessarily be assigned to this research period.

3. Beamlines Available to Users

For beamlines available to users and beamtime allocated to each beamline, click here.

Note: The BL47XU will allocate a few shifts for the 2nd and the 3rd period to the proposals that fit the specific conditions.

For the specifications and status of experimental stations, please check the Beamline List. If you have any questions, please contact the Beamline Scientist of the beamline of interest. To see what kinds of experiments have been performed at SPring-8, please refer to the SPring-8 Solution Database.

4. Application Requirements (Unqualified applicants are immediately screened out.)

Applicants need to have:
a. obtained a research grant (see below for the examples of applicable grant programs) through an open and transparent review process, or
b. received an allotment from a person who has obtained a research grant or equivalent.
Note: The size of the grant should not matter.

Applicable grant programs are as follows:
• competitive research grant programs administered by the Japanese Government Ministries (Grants-In-Aid for Scientific Research funded by MEXT, etc.)
• competitive research grant programs administered by the Japanese Independent Administrative Agencies such as Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), etc.

Important Notes:
-Programs on the Comprehensive List of Competitive Funds posted by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Cabinet Office or equivalent, are considered the applicable grant programs. Please click here to see the list (PDF).

– Proposals with college/university grants, private grants, and grants from abroad are not accepted.

– If the program’s research purpose is irrelevant to your research purpose specified in your application for SPring-8 beamtime, your proposal will be disqualified.

– Proposals with a research grant designed to train young researchers are also invited.

5. Application Method

Applicants/project leaders are required to submit proposals online through the User Information Website (UI site) and send by email to the Users Office a SPring-8 Program Fee Payment Agreement and Supplementary Information and a copy of the research purpose and research plan from the application for the grant. Please note that in the case of a long-term grant program requiring beamtime in more than one research term, an application needs to be made every half-year research term.

5.1 Online Submission

 UI site > Log in to My Page > Create and Edit Proposal Application Form > New > Non-Proprietary Grant-Aided Proposal

For step-by-step instructions on how to submit proposals, please see this page.

To avoid losing work in the event of a browser crash or unexpected logout, you are strongly encouraged to first draft your application offline using the MS Word template available here.

NOTE: The Research Period, such as “2022B” or “2022B-I”, specifies selectable beamlines.

5.2 Required Documents

a) SPring-8 Program Fee Payment Agreement and Supplementary Information
(submission required for each proposal application)
Please download an agreement form and a supplementary information sheet (PDF) from the UI site (Click here to download the PDF form), provide all the required information and send it to the Users Office by email (see 12.Contact) by the deadline specified in 6. Submission Deadline for Online Proposals.

b) Research Purpose and Research Plan
(submission required for each proposal application)
Please make a copy of the relevant pages of application for the grants and send it to the Users Office by regular mail or by courier by the deadline specified below. You can also convert the file to PDF and email it to us. If it is stated in the application that the use of SPring-8 is necessary for the research, please provide the page number in the supplementary information sheet attached to the agreement. If it is not stated, provide a supplementary explanation in the sheet. In case you need to apply for beamtime in more than one research term, please submit a copy of the relevant pages of the latest application every time.

6. Submission Deadline for Online Proposals

• Deadline for online proposal submission:
Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 10:00 am (Japan Time)

• Deadline for document submission by email (research purpose & plan, Fee Payment Agreement and Supplementary Information):
Tuesday, June 7, 2022

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 My Page of the UI site and check if your proposal has been submitted successfully.

 UI site > Log in to My Page > Create and Edit Proposal Application Form > Submitted

7. Proposal Review

The safety and technical feasibility of the experiment, the necessity to use SPring-8, and ethics (e.g., exclusively for peaceful purposes) will be considered. Approved proposals are given beamtime so far as beamtime available to this program permits.

In the event that the total beamtime shifts required by all the approved proposals exceed the beamtime available to this program, approved proposals are prioritized in order of the size of the grant amount allotted to SPring-8 experiments. Please note, however, that this criterion does not apply when there is little likelihood that reasonable results will be delivered; the PRC determines which proposals are given priority.

8. Notification of Review Results

Users will be notified of review results by email or phone by Thursday, June 8, 2022. When your proposal was not approved, you can resubmit the proposal as a General Proposal. In this case, please be sure to submit it through the web-based proposal submission system. An official notification of approval will be available in “My Page” at early August 2022.

9. Report Submission

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. Dissemination of Research Results

Publish your results 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 half-year 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.

 Log in to My Page > Publication Entry

For details, click here.

11. Fees (Tax Included)

• A variable fee will be calculated and added in accordance with the amount of liquid helium actually used.

* 1 shift is 8 hours and for any proposals that are allocated by the hour, the fees are charged by the hour.

* Program Fee: 22,000 yen/shift for CryoTEMs

12. Special Note for Proposals for BL47XU

The BL47XU will allocate a few shifts for the 2nd and the 3rd period to the proposals that fit the following conditions:
A. The research in Industrial Application using the imaging devices at BL47XU.
B. The application includes at least one person out of a project leader and project team member who is an employee of a private company or affiliated institution. Affiliated institutions, by our definition, are (1) public testing laboratories and (2) incorporated foundations/associations whose primary business is contract services of experiments/research for private companies.
Note: We categorize national/private universities, independent administrative institutions, special public corporations, and public corporations as neither (1) nor (2).

13. Contact