Apply for Beamtime

The next submission for proposals for AP35 is open. The AP covers the period April 2024 - October 2024. Proposals must be submitted by Wednesday 27^th September 2023 at 17:00hrs UTC+1/GMT+1.

For submissions of proposals please see here: Apply for beamtime.

Diamond runs call for proposal every 6 months in the spring and the autumn, aiming for peer review meetings in May and October. The call goes out to users via email and the deadline will be listed here for your attention.

The peer review meetings will review proposals submitted for the following allocation periods which are set as:

1st week of April - end of September

1st week of October - end of March

The available beamline access routes are listed in the below. Proposals should be submitted on-line in UAS.

All relevant access routes (standard, BAG and rapid access - see also menu on the left) at Diamond will be peer reviewed and accepted on their scientific merit.

Resubmissions: you must make it clear in your proposal if it is a resubmission. Describe what you have changed to fulfill the panel's comments on the previous proposal.

If the proposal is awarded beamtime, it is expected that experimental results will be published. If you do not wish to publish your results, please approach our Industrial Liaison Office who offer a wide range of services to meet your research needs.

Important information on the pandemic working conditions at the beamlines can be found here.

Please refer to the relevant information that each of the beamlines have published for you to gauge whether your proposal would be possible under current circumstances. You will find relevant information under each instrument’s specific information here. During technical assessment it will be considered whether a proposal can be undertaken with or without users.

You must discuss your planned work with our instrument scientists and submit all proposals to UAS. In addition, please ensure that any outstanding reports are submitted and that your publications related to your previous beamtimes are in our database as the peer review panel will take these in to consideration during the review.

Diamond continues to welcome all users to submit proposals and participate in experiments here. Users are welcome to come to Diamond for their research from anywhere in the world.

Funding for visits will continue as it did pre-Brexit, with users from EU organisations potentially being eligible for funding as stated in the Diamond expenses procedure, found here.

Visa guidance for Users

If you are a non-UK user you may need a visa to visit the UK.

If you are from the EU, the current rules state that you are allowed to travel to the UK for 6 months or less without needing a visa so you can continue to visit Diamond under the same arrangements as before Brexit.

A letter is available should you wish to support your visit, please contact the User Office for more information.

If you are non-UK/EU, you may need a visa to visit the UK – please check here to see if you will need to apply for a Standard Visitor visa.

 A Standard Visitor visa allows you to undertake certain business activities such as attending a meeting or conference or to gather information for your employment overseas. You cannot do paid or unpaid work for Diamond (including work placements and internships). A Standard Visitor visa allows you to stay for a maximum of 6 months per visit. For further information please see the official guidance here.

EU Life Science grants

Diamond also supports research submitted as part of EU grants. For more information on support for  European access to research in the life sciences, please see here. 

Following the heart-breaking evolution of the situation in Ukraine, Diamond wants to express support to everyone who has been affected by these tragic events, especially those from our community.

With immediate effect, Diamond has taken the decision to suspend its work with Russian and Belarusian affiliated institutions, including suspending access for users from those institutions, until further notice.

Science has always been about bringing people together beyond all boundaries, promoting scientific excellence and peace. We stand with all those who seek peace amid this crisis and beyond.

We would like to advise that we cannot allow work on new samples that involve collaboration with Russian/Belarusian institutions. For data that has already been collected publication with these authors is up to PI, but we would ask that it is made clear that this is not recent beam time, by explicitly stating when the beam time was

As well as Diamond access through a call for proposals, some instruments at Diamond also accept proposals at any time for Rapid Access. We are active members of iNEXT for EU Users (see guidance on what acknowledgements needs to be included in publications here). We have additional advice for members of the EU Structural Biology community here.

The Principal Investigator (PI) for a proposal must provide an ORCID ID in their registration details, and must have the status of Research Fellow or Academic Staff in UAS. Additionally all Diamond scientists including PDRAs and Support Scientists can apply as PIs providing they have the agreement of their PBS.

There may be a need for some proposals to include a request for time at ISIS as well as at Diamond. 

Proposals which require access to Diamond and ISIS should be sent to the facility and review panel which has the most appropriate expertise to judge the quality of the proposal. The choice of facility should be made considering the following factors:

1. Is most of the access required on one instrument? Is so, then you should send the proposal to the facility where most access is needed.
2. Is the demand or competition for one of the instruments considerably greater than all others? If this is the case then the proposal should be sent to the panel where the competition is highest.

For details on how to apply please also refer to our 'Preparing a Proposal in UAS' pages, under 'Instruments', as that guides users to people to consult in the application process dfor each instrument.

Please see the table below for the current offering at Diamond. Please visit this page to find out more about the science capabilities of each instrument.