Approved Program Proposal Guidelines

An Approved Program (AP) enables an investigator, or a group of investigators, to receive an assured percentage of beam time to carry out an extended program of research for a period of a few years . Policies related to AP status may be found at User Policy at the ALS.

Note: Before preparing an AP proposal, it is recommended that the Principal Investigator (PI) contact the ALS Scientific Advisor.

Proposal Guidelines

Submissions may not exceed 10 pages in length and must adhere to the following guidelines.

Page one must contain

Title of the proposal
Name of PI(s) and their contact information
Names of other team members
Beamline requested
Percentage of time requested, and proposed duration (not to exceed three years)
Requests to exclude potential reviewers (optional)
Suggestions of qualified reviewers (optional)
Abstract, with an outline of the science to be pursued, and justification for AP status

The following pages should include

Narrative description of the science to be pursued
Previous scientific accomplishments
Synchrotron track record
Synchrotron-related publications
Resources to be contributed

The deadline for submission of AP proposals will be 30 days prior to the deadline for general user proposals to leave time for external review.

Proposals will be sent out for external review, and will also be considered by the Proposal Study Panel which will provide its evaluation to the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC, in turn makes its recommendation regarding the disposition of the proposal to the ALS Division Director.

The ALS Division Director will send a letter to the PIs of successful proposals specifying the percentage of beam time and the period of the AP. The AP program will terminate at the end of the prescribed period, but an additional period can be requested through another full AP proposal.