Users from European organisations continue to be welcome to submit proposals to Diamond. The same funding policy and procedure for expenses remains in place for any visit to Diamond as was in place before Brexit.
Long Term Proposals (LTPs) are a mode of access whereby a PI can plan a series of experiments to take place over four six-month allocation periods. LTPs are useful where a series of experiments, potentially on different instruments, will be required in order to either answer a scientific problem or support the development of new instrumentation, a new technique or new community. The proposal must state the long term benefits expected from the successful implementation of the LTP that would be hard to consider in a series of individual standard proposals.
Users are requested to discuss any planned LTP in detail with the respective Diamond scientists before submission.
Within the proposal it must be clear how the experiments on the requested instruments form a single piece of work spanning the two year period, including an outline plan of the experiments or developments proposed over the period. In addition, only instruments accepting Long Term Proposals at the start of the proposal can be included. The award of an LTP is based on the scientific merit of the proposed science.
All Long Term proposals should be submitted on line in UAS.
Principal Investigator
Each LTP has a Principal Investigator (PI). The PI is responsible for:
Alternate Contact
An LTP can have any number of Alternate Contacts (ACs) who have permissions in UAS to carry out all the administrative tasks of a PI. They are included on all communication sent by UAS to the LTP along with the PI.
The role of AC is reserved to experienced academic representatives from a collaborating institution or to a scientist/post-doc who has a delegated role to administer the LTP. An LTP can have a number of Alternate Contacts (ACs) who have permissions in UAS to carry out all the administrative tasks on behalf of a PI. They are included in all communication sent by the UAS to the LTP along with the PI.
Co-Investigator
Everyone who is on the proposal but is not the PI or an AC will be registered as a Co-Investigator (Co-I).
A LTP is awarded Diamond beamtime for two years consisting of four six-monthly allocation (or scheduling) periods. Each Diamond year is split in to two six-month allocation periods (APs). To determine which proposals will be awarded time in any period, Diamond runs a call for proposals twice a year.
A proposal submitted to the call with a deadline in the first week of April, will be considered for first Diamond use between October of that year and March of the following year. A proposal submitted to the call with a deadline in the first week of October, will be considered for the first experimental session at Diamond between April and September of the following year.
Figure 1: Steps in the life of an LTP
|
Period |
Activity |
Detail |
What is submitted? |
|
-2 AP |
LTP proposal for experiment in 1st AP |
At this stage the proposal is created and submitted within the Diamond User Administration System (UAS; uas.diamond.ac.uk). It is at this stage that the overall scientific programme for the LTP is presented for review. In addition, a specific request should be made for the time needed in the first 6-month period. |
The LTP proposal, including science case, and request for beamtime in the 1st AP |
|
-1 AP |
Request for LTP beamtime for the 2nd experimental period
|
At this stage it is necessary to:
|
Request for time in the 2nd AP
|
|
1st AP |
Request for LTP beamtime for the 3rd experimental period |
During the 1st allocation period it will be necessary to:
|
6 monthly report
(depending on when in the period the experiments took place)
|
|
2nd AP |
Request for LTP beamtime for the 4th experimental period |
During the 2nd allocation period it will be necessary to:
|
Request for time in the 4th AP
6 monthly report
|
|
3rd AP |
|
During the 3rd allocation period it will be necessary to:
|
6 monthly report
|
|
4th AP |
LTP completion
4th experimental period |
Final experimental sessions are completed. After completion of the full LTP proposal it is necessary to complete a final report to indicate the outcome of the proposed work. This will be reviewed alongside future proposals to Diamond. |
Final report |
Whilst the Peer Review Panel will not re-judge the quality of science within the approved LTP, they will be responsible for judging effective use of Diamond instruments, and the progress of the goals and in the light of its judgement will adjust the allocation of time in subsequent allocation periods.
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