Atom probe sample chamber at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

Atom probe sample chamber at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. 

 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The x-ray nanoprobe at the Advanced Photon Source.

The Hard X-ray Nanoprobe at the Advanced Photon Source. 

 Argonne National Laboratory

Titan

The Titan Cray XK7 supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Sequencers at the Joint Genome Institute.

Genetic sequencers at the Joint Genome Institute. 

 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

LCLS Firstlight

The undulator hall of the Linac Coherent Light Source. 

 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Atmospheric Radiation Monitor station at Barrow, Alaska.

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement station at Barrow, Alaska. 

 ARM Climate Research Facility

The Spallation Neutron Source linear accelarator.

The Spallation Neutron Source linear accelerator. 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Raman spectrometer at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

Raman spectrometer at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource 

 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Interior of the DIII-D tokamak.

Interior of the DIII-D tokamak. 

 General Atomics

The Cockroft-Walton generator at Fermilab.

The Cockroft-Walton generator at Fermilab. 

 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

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Click here to learn more about the Office of Science User Facilities, including how to gain access.

The Office of Science national scientific user facilities provide researchers with the most advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. In Fiscal Year 2011 over 26,500 researchers from academia, industry, and government laboratories, spanning all fifty states and the District of Columbia, utilized these unique facilities to perform new scientific research.

A user facility is a federally sponsored research facility available for external use to advance scientific or technical knowledge under the following conditions:

  • The facility is open to all interested potential users without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation.
  • Allocation of facility resources is determined by merit review of the proposed work.
  • User fees are not charged for non-proprietary work if the user intends to publish the research results in the open literature. Full cost recovery is required for proprietary work.
  • The facility provides resources sufficient for users to conduct work safely and efficiently.
  • The facility supports a formal user organization to represent the users and facilitate sharing of information, forming collaborations, and organizing research efforts among users.
  • The facility capability does not compete with an available private sector capability.

Memorandum: Definition of a user facility.pdf file (257KB)
Current list of Office of Science user facilities.pdf file (21KB)
Memorandum: Designation of a user facility.pdf file (592KB)

The Office of Science continues to build on its long legacy of excellence in creating world-class large-scale scientific tools. From the earliest accelerators, to the new Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the Office of Science User Facilities are redefining what is possible in a host of scientific fields.

Last modified: 11/16/2012 2:33:25 PM