Proposal Submission

Twice a year the HZB User Coordination welcomes the submission of proposals for the large scale facility BESSY II, the MX beamlines and the facility EMIL via the general access tool GATE. Applications for the X-Ray CoreLab at Adlershof can be submitted via GATE at any time (NO deadline for CXR proposal).

Please find more detailed information on the Proposal Submission below:

• GATE - User Access Tool
• FOLLOW UP
• Guidelines for Beamtime Application
• Types of Beamtimes and Proposals
• Reviewing Process - Scientific Selection Panel (SSP)
• Beamtime Schedule
• Beamtime Allocation

GATE - User Access Tool

The digital user office portal GATE is the general access tool to the experimental infrastructures of the HZB. There you will find a number of web applications to:

Please follow these links for:

FOLLOW UP

The FOLLOW UP proposal gives you the opportunity to continue a previous project for which at least one proposal has been already submitted. If you want to make use of the new FOLLOW UP feature for your upcoming beamtime application in GATE, it is mandatory to  

• submit a new proposal
• enter the number of the former proposal to which your application refers to
• give a short justification for the FOLLOW UP and highlight the difference to the former proposal
• upload the corresponding experimental report if available

Guidelines for Beamtime Application

A clearly written proposal for an experiment at HZB can greatly increase the chances that the Scientific Selection Panel will recommend your application for beamtime allocation. Before you write your proposal, we advise you to contact HZB beamline scientists/station managers to talk about your experiments. They can help you to decide on the most suitable instruments, additional equipment and the amount of time you will need to complete your experiments. It might be helpful to include the beamline scientists/station managers as co-proposer (please discuss this in advance with the respective scientist). Thus they would be able to read the proposal online and check if the technical requirements of the experiments can be fulfilled before the final submission of your proposal. All proposals should be accompanied by reports on former HZB experiments. More detailed information on the guidelines can be found HERE.

Types of Beamtimes and Proposals

The HZB offers a range of ways to request beamtime at HZB facilities (e.g. standard, commercial, testing or long-term access). More detailed information on the different types of access can be found HERE.

Reviewing Process - Scientific Selection Panel (SSP)

The HZB Scientific Selection Panel (SSP) assesses the scientific merit of beamtime applications and gives recommendations for beamtime allocation (MEMBERS of SSP). The decision is based solely on the information given in the proposals and, if applicable, on results, experimental reports and publications related to previous HZB experiments. The rules of procedure of the HZB Scientific Selection Panel are available HERE. The HZB Scientific Selection Panel is organised in seven Scientific Colleges, which have been grouped according to research fields, in order to facilitate discussions on the scientific merit of the proposals. All users applying for synchrotron radiation beamtime are requested to choose the appropriate Scientific College for their proposal upon online submission. More detailed information on the Scientific Colleges can be found HERE.

Beamtime Schedule

The large scale facility BESSY II is running 24h per day, 7 days per week. Breaks for maintenance are regularly scheduled. The BESSY II schedule is as follows:

•      Sunday 19:00 to Tuesday 07:00
       Reserved for service and machine commissioning (MC/no beamtime available)
•      Tuesday 07:00 to Tuesday 19:00
       Set-up of experiments (limited availability, please clarify with the beamline scientist before the experiment)
•      Tuesday 19:00 to Sunday 19:00
       User shifts

In the shift-based scheduling calendar, this general operation schedule will translate as follows.

The schedule includes different OPERATION MODES and shutdown periods as well as the hall access on Mondays (SD*). The latest shift-based schedule can be found in our ONLINE SCHEDULE.

Beamtime Allocation

The general BESSY II Beamtime Allocation Schedules for both ID-Beamlines and Dipole Beamlines are shown HERE. Please note that, in general, the two beamlines located on one ID have to agree on the sharing of the available beamtime. For the description of the operation mode please refer to this LINK.