Closed: Call for 2023B General Proposals

Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) is inviting the General Proposals for the 2023B (October 2023 – February 2024, tentative) and for the first period of 2023B (October – mid-November 2023, tentative). Interested parties are encouraged to apply. Please read the following instructions in full before preparing your application.

 Special Notes 
1. Special policy will be applied to 2023B term proposals in order to minimize the effects of beamtime cancellations. Please make sure to check here.
2. Please understand that there is a possibility that we cannot provide stable supply of Helium (both liquid and gas) due to the recent situation regarding global helium supply.

Contents

1. General Proposals

The General Proposals is for non-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. For research to be considered non-proprietary, users must (1) submit a SPring-8 Experiment Summary Report within 60 days of the completion of each experiment and (2) publish their 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.

User 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. For the Proprietary Proposals, click here.

2. Research Period

[At Beamlines with biannual calls for proposals]

　From October 2023 to late February 2024 (tentative)

[At Beamlines with sixannual calls for proposals]

　From October to mid-November 2023 (first period of 2023B)
　Please note that proposals requiring special conditions, such as bunch mode designation, may not necessarily be assigned to this research period.

3. Beamlines and Beamtime Available to Users

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

* Collectively abbreviated as PX-BLs.
** The BL47XU will allocate a few shifts for the 2nd and the 3rd period to the proposals in the designated review fields. Please refer to the note in 5. Proposal Submission.
*** Due to beamline refurbishment, the BL39XU has no call until the 2024A term.

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. 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 2023B SPring-8 Research Proposals -Overview-.”

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

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

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 “2023B” or “2023B-I,” specifies selectable beamlines. Beamlines belonging to different Research terms cannot be combined within the same proposal. Please contact the SPring-8 Users Office when you cannot select the beamlines you want to use.
Example: BL40XU for the first-choice, BL02B1 for the second-choice

NOTE: The Beamlines with sixannual calls for proposals are available only for the review fields indicated below.

5. Special Notes for the Proposals for Structural Biology Field and Industrial Application Field

[Structural Biology]
When you plan to use PX-BLs and apply for proposals in the field of Structural Biology, be sure to refer to “2023B Operation of Proposals in the Field of Structural Biology” because different types of information are required to complete the application form.

[Industrial Application]
If you wish to submit a General Proposal for Industrial Application, please select “Industrial Application” as the Group of the Review Field in the Basic Information of the application form. In addition, please read the instruction carefully in “General Proposals and Graduate Student Proposals Intended to Be Reviewed in the Industrial Application Field” for its peculiar conditions, including the affiliation of project leader/collaborator, review criteria, and reports.

6. Submission Deadline for Online Proposals

Thursday, June 15, 2023, 10:00 am (Japan time)

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

The scientific and technical value, the degree of expectation to produce results, the necessity of SPring-8 as a research tool, ethics (e.g., exclusively for peaceful purposes), and the technical feasibility and safety of the experiment are comprehensively reviewed. If the research area of your proposal is Industrial Applications, the review of scientific and technical 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. Please read the instruction of “General Proposals and Graduate Student Proposals Intended to Be Reviewed in the Industrial Application Field.”

8. Notification of Review Results

Review results will be available on “My Page” of the UI site in early August 2023.

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.
In addition to an experiment summary report, users with a proposal for Industrial Application also need to submit an Industrial Application Proposal Report. Please refer to the details here.

10. Publication of Research Results

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 > Publication Entry

11. Others

11.1 Fees

For information about beamtime fee and user fees, please see the “Call for 2023B 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 2023B 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 Next-Term Proposals (2024A and the 2nd and the 3rd Period of 2023B)

The deadline for 2024A proposals (first half of fiscal 2024) is early December 2023.
Please also note that the deadlines for proposals to be conducted during the second (mid-November – mid-December 2023) and the third (late January – late February 2024) periods of 2023B are in September and October 2023, respectively, at Beamlines with sixannual calls for proposals.

12. Contact