Proposals

Proposal process

The proposal consists of information about the research team, amount of beam time requested and a description of the proposed experiment. Urgent post-proposal-call beam requests may be addressed through a "Fast Access" proposal process if necessary. Please contact the LANSCE User Office, (505) 667-6797, for more information and help with your proposal.

First-time users

If you are a first-time facility user, we encourage you to contact a flight path scientist to discuss your planned work to help ensure that the most appropriate flight path is chosen. View a list of flight path scientists.

LANSCE accepts proposals for the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center, Proton Radiography Facility (pRad) and the Weapons Neutron Research Facility (WNR).

Proposal submission

Every activity on any flight path requires a proposal. Proposals are submitted online into the new LANSCE Experiment Management System. If you have an account in the old LANSCE proposal portal please use the "Forgot your Password?" to reset your password and access your account in the new system.

Contact the LANSCE User Office for any updates to already submitted proposals.

Note that radiation effects and nuclear science are now addressed as separate calls with different review processes. If you have questions regarding which proposal call is appropriate for your proposal, please contact your instrument scientist or LANSCE User Office.

Guidance on Proposal Writing

While there is not a strict template for research proposals they should contain the following elements:

1. Research Goals including background needed to place your proposal in the proper context, and the significance of the proposed work
2. Experimental details sufficient for the PAC to determine the feasibility of your experiment: what you want to measure, estimates of signal and background, justification for time request
3. If you require special help in the form of specialized equipment or personnel expertise discuss these needs

While we do not enforce a strict page limit  proposals should be no more than 4 pages in length.

Proposal review

All proposals are reviewed for scientific merit by Program Advisory Committees (PACs). In the case of proprietary proposals, such as the case for industry, users pay for beam time and no scientific merit review is conducted.

Program Advisory Committees (PAC)

Three PACs are convened to review proposals: one for pRad, one for materials science, and one for nuclear physics. The Nuclear Physics PAC (NPAC) is divided into three subcommittees
(Basic Science,
Nuclear Technology,
and Weapons Physics).

The goal of these committees is to select those experiments that are thought to be the most important in a particular field, will have the greatest impact in the particular area of research, and have the greatest chance for success. The PAC rates the proposals and these ratings are used as input to the scheduling process. Users are given an opportunity to present their proposal either in person or by telephone before the pRad PAC and to answer questions from the committee.

If a proposal is rated highly, it will be scheduled for beam time. Before the experiment is actually run, it must undergo a safety and technical review. If the experiment is "routine" in the sense that it is very similar to experiments that have been done before and does not have any significant safety or compliance issues, it will be approved for beam time. If there are safety, compliance, security, or other concerns, the experiment will be reviewed in more depth by a committee of subject matter experts. The result of the safety review may be additional requirements, procedures, and/or documentation.

If you have any questions please contact the LANSCE User Office, lansce-user-office.lanl.gov.