An Approved Program (AP) enables an investigator or a group of investigators to receive a set percentage of beam time to partner with ALS staff both to carry out an extended research program and to develop new tools and/or new research protocols that will be made available to the general user population. APs are arranged for a period of up to three years. Please note that APs will pause during the one-year dark time associated with the ALS-U project and will restart when collaborative access becomes available at the relevant beamline
Intent Form deadlines: December 13 and June 14
AP Proposal Submission Deadlines: January 15 and July 15. (If the AP Proposal deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observed on the third Monday of January, the deadline is moved to the first business day that follows.)
For details on how the upcoming ALS-U dark time will affect proposal calls and beamtime requests, refer to this page.
AP Proposal Submission Guidelines
Step 1: Submit an Intent Form
The Intent Form is intended to facilitate communication between Approved Program proposal PIs and ALS management in advance of AP proposal submission. The primary goals of the form are to establish the feasibility of the proposed AP work and ensure that the proposed work and collaborations are aligned with ALS strategic directions. The content in your responses is understood to be preliminary. This form is required and must be completed one month before the AP submission date.
Step 2: Submit a Proposal
Read the Proposal Writing Guidelines and Scoring Criteria.
Log in to ALSHub and follow the links to submit an AP. Please ensure that all publications resulting from previous work at the ALS are added to our Publications Database before completing the AP form, so that they will be appended to your proposal. You will be asked to attach a PDF file of the scientific case. The scientific case may not exceed 10 pages in length, written in 12-point font or larger, and it should include the following sections:
- Title of the proposal
- Abstract
- Justification for AP status, including resources to be contributed, the plan for collaboration with ALS staff, and the amount of beamtime requested on the ALS beamline(s)
- Narrative description of the collaborative tool development and/or research program to be pursued and new capabilities to be developed and made available to the user community once they are commissioned
- Previous scientific accomplishments, particularly in prior AP agreements
- Synchrotron track record
- Synchrotron-related publications
Review of AP proposals
Proposals will be sent out for external review and will also be evaluated by the Proposal Study Panels (PSP), which will provide their evaluation to the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC then forwards its recommendations to the ALS division director.
A letter will be sent to the PIs of successful proposals specifying the percentage of beam time and the period of the AP. The AP will terminate at the end of the prescribed period, but an additional period can be requested with another full AP proposal. Proposals that are not accepted as an AP may be considered as General User Proposals and assigned a score by the PSP for consideration of beam-time allocation along with other General User Proposals.
Criteria and Policy for Granting an Approved Program
The following criteria for granting an AP were established by the SAC:
- The quality of the proposed research, which should be well above that of a typical General User proposal.
- The importance of the resources, including personnel and equipment, that the AP will bring to achieve its goals.
- The value of the proposed collaboration between the AP and ALS staff.
AP status is not an entitlement based solely on the historical success of a group, but rather is intended to create a direct partnership with the ALS staff, and to support its strategic mission of performing world-class science. As only a limited number of APs can be accommodated on a particular beamline, it is anticipated that relatively few proposals will be approved.
In general, members of an AP are not entitled to submit additional General User Proposals for beam time on the beamline where they have AP time.