First, check when the next call for proposals opens.

Information and detailed instructions on how to create a new proposal for submission in the User Portal can be found under How to submit a proposal.

It is important to note that active proposals will not be automatically valid in the next cycle, users need to submit a Beam Time Request (BTR) when there is an open Call for Proposals.

There are a few points that can be considered and incorporated into the corresponding sections for a successful proposal:

• The research project needs to be novel with a well-defined scientific question that could only be answered with the technique(s) offered by the BioXAS-Imaging beamline.
• Include information with the necessary description that your sample is compatible with this technique.
• Provide sufficient explanation to justify how the utilization of this technique will benefit your research project.
• Include any preliminary data from the beamline or complementary data from other imaging techniques to help the reviewer understand the objective of the project.
• Justify the number of shifts required based on the number of samples that are essential to be able to answer your research question.
• Since obtaining beamtime is very competitive knowing how many shits to request is important. Instruction on how to calculate the time required for an imaging scan can be found below.

Example

1. Let’s assume you need to scan an area of 1 mm x 1 mm with a resolution of 10 um and 100 ms dwell time per pixel. Dwell time can be defined as how much time the beam spends on a pixel and can vary between experiments. Detection of elements with low abundance can be improved with longer dwell time.
2. Basically, you need to calculate how many pixels are in an area of interest and multiply that by the dwell time in seconds.
3. Then the time required for the scan (purely based on the parameters above) is (1 mm/0.01 mm) x (1 mm/0.01 mm) x 0.1 s = 100 x 100 x 0.1 s = 1000 s, so approximately 17 mins.
4. Please add 10% to it as the stages need time to move up to a new horizontal line.
5. Thus, the total time in the proposal for such an image would be 17 mins + 10% x 17 mins = 19 mins

It is the responsibility of the User to ensure that the BioXAS-Imaging beamline project proposal is up to date, particularly that the samples and standards intended for the experiment are on the list. Samples/Standards that are not on the list are not permitted and will not be allowed to be run on the BioXAS-Imaging beamline, therefore, in case of additional samples, the proposal needs to be updated accordingly.

To receive Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) approval on time, it is recommended to make the amendments to the submitted proposal at least 4 weeks before the scheduled beamtime. Also, ensure that all members of the User group, who plan to participate in the data collection, must be on the proposal.