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New call for proposals in spring 2024

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Applying for beamtime

The Spring 2024 call for proposals will be open from 1st. March. You are cordially invited to participate. The deadline for submitting proposals will be the 3rd. of April 2024 at 23:59 CEST.

SOLARIS announces an open call for proposals twice a year:
  • The spring call (deadline for proposal submission is beginning of April) is for experiments to be performed from September of the same year till February the following year.
  • The autumn call, (deadline for proposal submission is beginning of October) is for experiments to be performed from March till August of the following year.
Scientists from Poland and abroad can apply for beamtime on:
  • ASTRA (tender and hard X-ray absorption spectroscopy),
  • CIRI (micro- and nanometric chemical imaging) – only Expert Commissioning Access,
  • DEMETER 
  • PEEM (a photoemission electron microscope),
  • STXM (scanning transmission X-ray microscope),
  • PHELIX (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy),
  • PIRX (soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy),
  • POLYX (X-ray microimaging and X-ray microspectroscopy),
  • URANOS (ultra angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy),
  • Titan Krios G3i cryo-electron microscope.

Terms of applying for beamtime in Expert Commissioning Access mode:

Part of the infrastructure is available under dedicated Expert Commissioning access mode, for which special criteria apply:
  • Prior to proposal submission, potential users should contact beamline staff to discuss the beamtime details. 
  • The researchers coming to the SOLARIS should have the expertise necessary to be able to contribute to the development of the beamlines capabilities.
  • The researchers coming to the SOLARIS can preferably contribute with expertise not already available in the beamline group or at SOLARIS.
  • The commissioning expert users accept that commissioning of the beamline capabilities has preference over conducting the specific experiments that the researchers may have suggested.
  • The commissioning expert users accept that scheduling and rescheduling may occur with short notice.
  • Scientific excellence of the proposed experiment is regarded as a plus, but not a necessary requirement of a commissioning experiment.
 
Special conditions for CIRI beamline infrastructure
 
The planned date of installation of subsequent elements of the beamline and their commissioning is summer 2024. For this reason, the implementing applications using synchrotron radiation will be possible from December 2024 at the earliest and the number of measurement shifts will be limited. In case of installation failure or commissioning of the beamline optics, accepted applications using synchrotron radiation will be postponed to the next period of application implementation, i.e. spring  2025. In the period until the end of June 2024, applications will be processed using laboratory sources and should be submitted by users using the current path, i.e. using the "Rapid Access" form.
 
Available laboratory sources: thermal source for the FT-IR microscope, a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) in the range of 1740-950 cm-1 for the s-SNOM/AFM-IR microscope and QCL lasers in the range of 1800-900 cm-1 and 3000-2700 cm-1 for O-PTIR microscope.
 
Beamtime applications are submitted through the user portal SOLARIS User Network (SUN). We strongly recommend discussing the feasibility of planned experiments with the responsible infrastructure scientist prior to the submission of a proposal, in particular, if you are a new user.

Available types of proposals:

  • Standard proposal - the standard peer reviewed access mode, offering beamtime to a single scientific project.
  • Long-term proposal - used for projects requiring repeated access for experiments over a longer time frame (max. 3 experimental periods), e.g. PhD thesis projects, projects developing new methods or specific instrumentation. If you have suggestions for other subject for long term project please feel free to contact your beamline/infrastructure choice for further discussions.
  • For beamlines: maximum number of 8 hour shifts is 30 for all 3 experimental periods. During one experimental period maximum available shifts is 15.
  • For Cryo-EM: maximum number of 2.5 day shifts is 4 for all 3 experimental periods. During one experimental period maximum available 2.5 day shifts is 2.
  • Rapid access – possibility to receive the research time apart from the standard procedure but under very strict conditions:
  • the necessity to perform the experiment immediately because of the scientific value of potential test results,
  • the necessity to supplement experiment previously performed in SOLARIS to complete the research project and/or publication,
  • willingness to check the feasibility of the project through test measurements.

If none of the above cases apply, you should submit an application in the spring or autumn recruitment.

The Rapid Access procedure does not work for the Cryo-EM microscope.

Additionally, losing access to local research infrastructure as a result of force majeure (such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, acts of war, or other events of a similar nature) enables you to pick the option of performing your rapid access experiment remotely on chosen beamlines (assuming it satisfies the rapid access conditions).

 
Scientists are also welcome to submit their application to SOLARIS through the CERIC - ERIC call for proposals, using the Virtual Unified Office (VUO). All details can be found here: https://www.ceric-eric.eu/users/call-for-proposals/
Access to CERIC-ERIC is open to researchers from all over the world through two Calls for Proposals per year organized in the same time as at the SOLARIS.
In addition to the possibility to access several instruments through a single application, CERIC offers support for mobility, accommodation for two people per research group and awards for high quality open access publications.
 

NEPHEWS project support

NEPHEWS (read more) - New user-oriented project that supports free access to European Synchrotrons, Free Electron Lasers and Neutron facilities.
If you are a scientist who applies for the beamtime at SOLARIS and your affiliation is in Widening country or a country without large research infrastructure, this project is dedicated to you.


Follow the link below to see a list of "EU Widening Countries".
https://rea.ec.europa.eu/horizon-europe-widening-who-should-apply_en


Terms and conditions:
The NEPHEWS support offers reimbursement of costs for travel and accommodation for two persons from the user group whose affiliations are as above. After measurement, it is mandatory to complete a short evaluation survey and send it to the NEPHEWS team to receive reimbursement.
In order to provide information about qualifying for support in the NEPHEWS project, please indicate your consent to contact in your profile on the SUN platform.
* I agree to receive (by e-mail) information on calls for applications for access to research infrastructure located at and/or related to NCPS SOLARIS and the CERIC-ERIC Consortium.


When your proposal will reach the evaluation threshold and the beamtime be granted, the NEPHEWS team will contact you directly with further guidelines.

NEPHEWS

Modification date 02/04/2024 - Dagmara Chylewska-Olech