Applying for Beam Time

Proposals for experiments on these instruments are submitted to Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) on a standard Proposal Form. Proposals may be submitted at any time by any prospective user. The proposals are then subjected to a formal Proposal Review Process. On receipt of the proposal one of the neutron scattering scientists at the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre ( CNBC) will be assigned as a Local Contact to the proposed experiment if none is specified by the proposer/user. The proposal will then be reviewed by one of five subject-oriented Review Committees for scientific merit, for technical feasibility and to decide if the period of beam time requested is appropriate. If the proposal is accepted, neutron beam time will be assigned at a scheduling meeting of the CNBC staff.

Beam time allocations attempt to strike the best compromise between the dates requested by the proposer, competing requests for beam time on the same instrument and the availability of any ancillary equipment required by the experiment (cryostat, furnace, etc.). The local contact will ensure that all necessary instrumentation is operational for the experiment and will assist with the measurement, if requested to do so.

It is expected that the results for all non-proprietary measurements will be published in the open literature (no fee applies to these measurements). For proprietary measurements, beam time can be obtained on a fee-for-service basis through the Applied Neutron Diffraction for Industry (ANDI) activity of the CNBC.

Reporting Requirements

A requirement of the Proposal Review Process is that a short experimental report is written within six months of the experiment being conducted. Experimental reports will be collated together for the CNBC annual report, and may be in one of two formats:

• approx. 1,300 words with two or three accompanying figures.
• approx. 700 words with one accompanying figure.

Electronic submission is strongly preferred over hardcopy. Text is preferred in a commercial word processing format, but any electronic submission is accepted. Figures should be encapsulated postscript or TIFs.

We will contact the scientist three months after the experiment has been conducted, as a reminder about the experimental report.

Please contact Alastair McIvor if you have questions about the format of your submission.