Application due dates and submission system
The Photon Factory (PF) sets due date twice a year for proposals to use the public beamlines. Please refer to this User's Guide if you plan to apply.

NOTE) Overseas applicants are required to assign a contact person to act as an intermediary with the Photon Factory before applying. See detail.

Proposal submission system has been newly launched. Please apply using this on-line submission system.

If you have any questions about our new system, please send your email to;
Katsumi Kobayashi
Professor
Research Service Office
E-mail: katsumi.kobayashi@kek.jp

Guidelines for filling the application form

Basic Information

A proposal is mainly evaluated based on its scientific merit and technical feasibility of the research plan. You should clearly express what you plan to carry out during the valid term of the proposal. Proposals which do not have strong scientific relation should be submitted separately. An example is protein A and protein B that have little biological relations.

[Proposal categories]

Research proposals are categorized into five (P, G, S1, S2, U). Please choose the one which is most appropriate for your experiment among them. For the details of the each category, please refer to the following list.

[Proposal title]

A simple and concrete title is required in 150characters max (not comprehensive). Imagine the title that may be used in a paper for the result.

[Research field]

Please indicate the research field of your proposal referring to the "Research Field" below. The multiple numbers can be applied.

Contact person in Japan (CPJ)

Overseas applicants are required to assign a contact person to act as an intermediary with the Photon Factory. His/her approval to act as CPJ is obligatory. This contact person should live in Japan and be a Japanese speaker. The contact person will ensure that the application procedure runs smoothly, and will also assist with visa procedures, reservation of accommodations etc. If you do not know any appropriate person for the Contact Person, the person in charge of the station you want to use can help you find candidates for CPJ.

Detailed information

[Significance, aim, originality and expected outcome of this work (including why you need Photon Factory]

Take care to make it understandable to other fields' people.

• Significance and background
  *Why is the material important?
  *Why is the development of the method important?
• Purpose
  *What kind of information are you planning to obtain?
  *If the result is obtained, what is clarified and how does it contribute to the progress of science and/or technology?
• Originality
• Expected results and expected influence effect
• The explanation why the methods are suited for the research.
• Why is Photon Factory needed?
  *Is it impossible to perform this experiment with laboratory facilities?
  *Advantages compared to other methods must be mentioned.
  

[[Proposed experimental method and layout (schemes can be included). The reason why you choose the station or required beam specification (photon energy, flux, beam size, etc). Justify the requested amount of beam time.]

• Put drawings when special set-up is planned. PDF files of drawings & figures can be uploaded by using the upload button at the bottom of "Detailed Information" panel.
• Describe the feasibility of the experiment semi-quantitatively.
• Write down the answers to the questions the referees are likely to raise in reviewing.
  For example,
  "Can it be measured?"
  "Has sufficient examination been done?"
  "What kind of measurement method is planned?"
  (Estimated intensity of signal)
• The reason why you choose the station and need the requested beam time should be written.
  

[List of samples (Obligatory). Remarks and safety measures against possible hazards (chemicals, biological materials, radiation, high voltage, high pressure, contamination of vacuum, etc.).]

• List the materials' names, shape, quantity and safety.
• If the materials are from living organisms, list the species, pathogenicity and toxicity.
• If they are hazardous, describe appropriate safety measures. Especially regarding highly hazardous materials (flammable gas, toxic chemical substances, radioisotopes), the safety measures discussed with the persons in charge of the station and its safety should be specified.
• When using animals in your experiment, specify that they are admitted as appropriate according to The Animal Experiment Committee of your institution.
• Safety measures regarding conditions such as high temperatures, high voltage or high pressure should be specified as well as samples if any risks are estimated. If there is a possibility that ultra-high vacuum chamber may be contaminated, safety measures must be specified.

[Accomplishment and/or publications in your previous research programs in related fields. Status of sample/equipment preparation.]

Mainly the status and the experience of the application group (not the status of overseas)

• Relationship with previous work in your group.
• Status of preparation for equipment, sample etc.
• Status and result of preliminary experiment.
• Prepare so as not to need to read referred literatures.
• When applying from overseas, add the expected financial support for traveling etc.
  
  

Remarks

• Proposals of "Methods and instrumentation, detectors" will be reviewed in the most relevant field among the other fields.
  
• The application will be reviewed based on the description on the form. Please include a full description of the experiment.
  
• Please fill application in either English or Japanese.
• For S2 Category proposal, following information should be prepared separately in free format.
  1) Significance, aim, originality and expected outcome of this work (including why you need synchrotron radiation)
  2) Experimental plan, sketch of setup, the reason why you choose the station and you need the beamtime required.
  After converted in PDF it should be uploaded using "Upload 1" button at the bottom of the panel. Size of the PDF file must be less than 10 A4-size pages, including figures and drawings.
  Summary of the above information and the reason to apply in S Category should be filled out in the web page.
  
• For U Category Proposals, the following information is additionally required to fill out in the application.
  1) The explanation of why it's urgent and important.
  2) The reason why the applicants could not apply on last occasion for submission.
  

Proposal review & scoring

Proposals are reviewed by referees, then in Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee (PF-PAC).  Proposals are scored between 5 and 0 (5 is the highest).  Those above threshold are approved by PF-PAC.  A proposal is evaluated based on its scientific merit, technical feasibility of the research plan and capability of the experimental group. The approval of a proposal means that it is evaluated to be worth doing by PF-PAC.  However, please mind that the "approval" does not always guarantee the allocation of beam time you wrote in the application form.  For your reference, show you the graph of the distribution of the approved proposal scores in FY 2011.

PF-PAC pays more attention to the productivity of the proposing user groups when reviewing the proposals.
In case a spokesperson has more than two approved proposals between 8.5 years and 2.5 years ago from when the applied proposal becomes active,

1. Spokespersons who haven't registered their publications on more than one third of the approved proposals are asked on the reason why they haven't done yet.
2. According to the answer, PF analyzes the reasons.
3. Proposals without any answer to the inquiry are rejected.
4. Regarding to the proposals from the spokespersons who have registered only a few publications, PF-PAC Subcommittee proposes the deduction of the score considering the reasons, the situation of registration in their publications and PF-PAC finally decides the score.
   The deduction is set as following guidelines.
   *In case of more than two thirds of proposals haven't been registered, 1.0 point is deducted from their score.
   *In case of more than one third of proposals haven't been registered, 0.5 point is deducted from their score.

PF-PAC held on June 25 decided to apply this rule from the next applications.