General users are granted beam time through a peer-review proposal process. They may use beamlines and endstations provided by the ALS or the Participating Research Team (PRT) that operates the beamline.
Before Submitting a Proposal
- Review the ALS Beamline Directory to learn about the research capabilities of individual beamlines. Contact the primary contact listed for the beamline for additional information.
- You can improve your proposal by reading the proposal writing guidelines and scoring criteria. Please note! We updated the guidelines and request that content be divided into specific separate sections. Please read the new guidelines carefully before submitting a proposal.
Joint Access to the Molecular Foundry
It is possible to request joint access to the ALS and the Molecular Foundry, a national nanoscience user research facility at Berkeley Lab, to assist meeting certain minimal needs of an ALS proposal. Users should review these guidelines before completing their proposal.
Proposal Submission
Log in to ALSHub to submit a General User Proposal (GUP).
Proposal deadlines:
January–June operating cycle: 1st Wednesday in September
July–December operating cycle: 1st Wednesday in March
Proposals are accepted until 11:59 pm, Pacific Time Zone on the Wednesdays above.
For details on how the upcoming ALS-U dark time will affect proposal calls and beamtime requests, refer to this page.
Maintaining an Active Proposal
GUPs typically remain active for two years (four cycles) or until the number of shifts recommended by the Proposal Study Panel (PSP) for the life of the proposal has been used. Users may decide whether to submit a new proposal or make a beam time request on an active proposal based on the cutoff score for that beamline.
Please note that proposal scores may be adjusted in subsequent cycles, as follows:
- Proposals that are allocated beam time in the first cycle will retain the same score.
- Proposals that do not obtain beam time in the first cycle will have their score ‘improved’ (score decreased by 0.2). This should increase the probability of obtaining beam time for proposals close to the cutoff. The aim is to help these users to write an improved proposal.
- If a proposal with an improved score is allocated beam time, the score will revert to the original score for future cycles.
Proposal Review and Scoring Process
The proposal review process is as follows:
- Beamline staff from the requested beamlines review each proposal and make comments on feasibility.
- Each proposal is assigned four external reviewers. These reviewers follow a rubric and assign a score to each of the three proposal criteria. Scores are given in 0.5 point increments from 1.0 to 5.0, with 1.0 being the strongest score, and weighted according to the rubric. Reviewers provide comments on each criteria. The scoring criteria and rubric may be found on our Proposal Writing Guidelines and Scoring Criteria page.
- Each proposal is assigned two Proposal Study Panel (PSP) members. PSP members review the proposal and provide their own scores, taking into account the feasibility comments from beamline staff, and the reviews from external reviewers.
- The PSP meets as a group to discuss proposals to ensure that the review process is fair and consistent across proposals. They approve the final scores, add additional comments if needed, and provide suggestions on beamtime allocations to the beamline staff. Proposals deemed infeasible are marked as inactive and the users are notified.
Proposal reviewers must be committed to the ethical, fair, and thorough evaluation process that is essential to maintaining the integrity and success of the ALS User Program and follow ALS proposal reviewer guidance and requirements. They must also adhere to the ALS’s proposal review conflict of interest policy.
Allocating Beam Time
Once all proposals have been reviewed and assigned a score, beamtime for general users is allocated by the ALS User Office in consultation with the beamline scientist. This process is overseen by the ALS Deputy for Science. The available beamtime is allocated according to the rank order of score, beginning with the best score and continuing until the beam time allotment for general users has been met. In the case of identical scores at the cutoff, the proposals with identical scores are put into a random order and assigned beamtime starting at the top of the randomized list.
Notification Process
Approximately three months after the submission deadline, users are notified by the User Office when beamtime allocation results are ready, and users can see beamtime allocations and reviewer comments in ALSHub.
Scheduling Beamtime
Beamtime schedules are finalized by the beamline scientist in consultation with users. See the ALS Beamline Directory for beamline scientist contact information.