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- Proposal Review Process and Review Committees
Each application for beam time, which is assigned a final number based on one of 12 scientific areas (see point 6), is reviewed by one or more Review Committees (see point 4). The Review Committees assess the proposals for their scientific merit or their technical, technological and/or innovative relevance. The members of the Review Committees are specialists in related areas of science and are appointed by the ESRF management.
The Review Committees meet twice a year, in April and in October, to assess proposals received at the submission deadlines of 1st March and 10th September, respectively.
It is the beamline(s) requested by the main proposer, in the application for beam time, which determine(s) the Committee(s) which will review the proposal.
Beamlines of similar techniques or activities have been grouped together to form 12 review committees (see point 4). Each review committee reviews and assess all the proposals which request one or several of the beamlines for which it is responsible.
The proposal review process allows all proposals received for a particular beamline to be assessed by the same Review Committee. This gives the Committees flexibility to optimise the selection of proposals to be performed on each beamline. In addition, this structure and associated software allow ESRF to obtain and publish the final decisions much sooner after the Review Committee Meetings of April and October.
It is therefore extremely important that the proposer takes great care when filling in this part of the proposal form in order to have the proposal assessed by the appropriate review committee.
Important:
ESRF beamlines are designed for research in areas as diverse as engineering, physics, chemistry, crystallography, earth science, biology and medicine, surface and materials science, and are characterized by specific techniques of investigation.
In the electronic application form, the main proposer may select :
Important:
In order to request the appropriate beamline(s) for your research, and therefore to have your proposal assessed by the appropriate review committee, you are kindly requested, in case of doubt:
From the proposal round of April 2018 a new committee was created and a total of12 Review Committees, corresponding to groups of beamlines of similar techniques or activities, review and assess all proposals requesting the beamlines of that Committee, whatever their scientific area. They meet twice year:
If beamlines from different committees are selected
In the case where a proposal requests beamlines which fall into more than one Committee, each relevant Committee will review the proposal, giving only a recommendation for the beamline(s) for which it is responsible.
The table below shows the 12 review committees, identified from C01 to C12, and the beamlines for which each committee will review and assess proposals:
Consult also the our information page on Beamlines Status
Review Committees | Beamlines |
C01 | ID01 - ID03 - BM25B - BM32 |
C02 | ID11 - ID15A - ID22 - ID31 |
C03 | ID12 - ID32 |
C04 | BM08 - BM16 - BM20 - BM23 - BM25A - BM26A - BM30B - BM31 |
C05 | BM01A - ID06LVP - ID15B - ID27 |
C06 | ID17 - ID19 |
C07 | ID16B-NA - ID16A-NI - ID21 |
C08 | ID02 - ID13 - BM26B |
C09 | BM02 - ID09 - ID10 - BM28 |
C10 | ID23-1 - ID23-2 - ID29 - BM29 - ID30A-1 - ID30A-3 - BM30A |
C11 | ID20 - ID24 - ID26 |
C12 | ID18 - ID28 |
The electronic application forms for beam time for a Standard Proposal and for a Long Term Project Proposal allow proposers to select beamlines as described in point 3, and provide accurate information about the scientific research carried out at the ESRF and its societal impact:
The electronic application forms for a BAG proposal and a Rolling non-BAG proposal must ONLY be used for applications for beam time for Structural Biology Experiments to be carried out on the Structural Biology beamlines.
The complete list of available electronic application forms for beam time is proposed in the user account: tab "Proposals/Experiments" -> "Proposals" -> tab "New proposal".
The research proposed in an application for beam time should be identified within the framework of a "Societal Theme" which must be registered by the main proposer in the electronic registration form.
The following "Societal Themes" are proposed:
The information is mandatory and ONLY one societal theme can be selected.
Please note that the proposers must identify whether the proposal is fundamental / applied / industrially relevant science elsewhere on the proposal form. The societal theme section should not be used for this. Please therefore ONLY select "Fundamental Science" if the theme is Fundamental Science not already covered by the other themes proposed.
Each application for beam time is assigned to one of 12 scientific areas as follows:
For queries or questions, please contact the User Office.