A brief overview of the different steps and reviews a Standard access proposal goes through when submitted to MAX IV.

The workflow of a call spans over approximately 10 weeks from call closure, until a final result is approved by MAX IV management, and the decisions are sent out to all applicants.

0. Communicate with beamline staff

Discuss the planned experiment with the beamline staff well in advance of submitting the proposal. This greatly increases the chances of success as any questions or issues can be cleared out before the proposal process starts, where time for staff to tackle this is limited. You will find relevant contact information on each beamline page.

1. Proposal Submitted in DUO

When submitting a proposal in the Digital User Office (DUO) tool, make sure to use the right proposal form, fill in all necessary information etc. Please note that no changes are allowed to submitted proposals after submission deadline.

For further information about call open dates and submission deadlines please see our “Call for Proposal” page.

2. Technical feasibility

After the submission deadline, the beamline staff perform a technical feasibility review of all proposals, mainly making sure that:

  • The suggested experiment is technically possible to do at the beamline.
  • The requested amount of shifts are reasonable.

Obvious safety concerns are highlighted to the Experimental Safety Team (EST) at this point, but no safety review is performed until a proposal is accepted (or reserve-listed).

Time allocated for this task: 2 Weeks

3. Reviewed by PAC

The MAX IV PACs (Programme Advisory Committees) review all Standard access proposals. MAX IV aims to have three PAC members review each proposal. The peer review mainly focuses on:

  • Scientific excellence.
  • Users track record, e.g. experimental reports, publications etc.

Time allocated for this task:

  • 3 weeks initial review time.
  • 1-2 weeks are set aside for PAC meetings.

Plus an additional 1-2 weeks of final administration of the results from PAC review.

4. MAX IV Management decision

MAX IV Management makes a final decision regarding the allocation of beamtime. All users are then informed of the result through an automatic email sent out from DUO containing (amongst other things):

  • Information on whether a proposal was accepted, placed on reserve-list or refused.
  • Proposal score.
  • Any comments from PAC review.

Time allocated for this task: 1 week

5. Safety review

The Experimental Safety Team will review all accepted proposals (and reserve-listed if/when they are to be scheduled) to make sure that the planned experiments are safe to perform at MAX IV and suggest mitigations in cases where risks are identified.