To submit a new proposal see the ALS User Guide. Contact the beamline staff before submitting a proposal to discuss any experimental details and limitations.
There are two manners in which to submit a new proposal, a General User proposal and a Rapid Access proposal.
General User Proposal (From the ALS User Guide):
This is the most common type of user access for all beamlines. The process accommodates users who want to establish an ongoing program of work at the ALS, or want to carry out a single experiment requiring more beamtime than is available though the RAPIDD system. Proposals may be submitted every six months and can remain active for up to two years. Proposal deadlines:
January–July operating cycle: Proposals due first Wednesday in September
August–December operating cycle: Proposals due first Wednesday in March
Rapid Access Proposal
This proposal process accommodates users requiring limited but rapid access to ALS beam time. It includes rapid access for both general science and structural biology users, industry proposals, and Director's Discretionary beam time. Proposals may be submitted at any time. It is expected that data collection results in the acknowledgement of the ALS and Beamline in any publications resulting from a RAPIDD Proposal; however, if beamline staff conduct the refinement and/or finalization it is expected that they be included as an author on the manuscript along with the ALS/beamline acknowledgement.
Once your proposal has been accepted please follow the guidelines outlined below:
1. The beamline staff will contact you to determine when your beamtime will be. For Rapid Access Proposals, contact beamline staff to determine when you should submit your samples.
2. Complete a Sample Submission Form for each sample to be submitted. Please e-mail these completed forms electronically. Make sure that your samples are labeled according to the identification code you specified on the sample form.
3. Please view the Sample Packing and Shipping Sheet for the guidelines on how to pack and ship your samples appropriately. The Department of Transportation guidelines for shipping of hazardous materials should be consulted for any questions.
4. Please include in the shipping packet any pertinent MSDS as well as a return shipping label for the samples to be sent back to you.
5. After the package has been shipped, please e-mail a copy of the tracking information to your beamline contact.
You may mail samples to:
Advanced Light Source
Attn: Simon Teat
ALS shipping and Receiving
Berkeley Lab
1 Cyclotron Road
Berkeley, CA 94720
IMPORTANT: Shipping requirements for samples:
Please see the attached document outlining an example of how we would like samples shipped for data collection. The attached document is a guideline, Department of Transportation (DOT) and International Air Transportation Association (IATA) regulations should be consulted for official details. Shipments should also conform to any of your local regulations as well. We prefer that samples be contained within small vials with screw top lids that seal against a PTFE disc (with minimum solvent volumes), these vials should then be packaged in a larger external plastic container of some kind to contain any potential spills (a handful of vials per container is fine) these should be contained in plastic zip lock bags and then packed properly. Any MSDS for hazardous chemical shipments should also be included in the shipment (i.e. flammable solvents.) The best option is to contact your university shipping department and have them look over shipments before they go out. We take safety at the ALS seriously and violation of DOT and IATA shipping regulations can result in the rejection of samples from the ALS.
Lastly we request that a return shipping label be supplied in your shipment so samples can easily be returned after data collection.
***********No radioactive material can be shipped to the ALS without prior approval.***********************
We thank you for your understanding and your support in improving the safety culture at our beamline.
Once your experiments have been run please make sure that any and all presentations and publications resulting from the data collection contain the following blurb of text exactly.
This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
Furthermore, after publication please visit the ALS publication repository and deposit your citation.