S Pring-8 invites research proposals twice a year and submitted proposals are reviewed at the SPring-8 Proposal Review Committee (PRC). For 2002B, the PRC a p p r o v e d 4 7 2 p r o p o s a l s f r o m 7 5 1 proposals and 563 from 733 for 2003A. The total of little more than 4,000 hours of beamtime was allocated to successful applicants from 2002B through 2003A. SPring-8 user operation results for the period from 1997B to 2003A are shown in Table III . This table shows user beamtime available to users and the numbers of users and experiments conducted at both public and contract beamlines, which are Table III. SPring-8 user operation results. also illust rated in Fig. 3. The results in the table and the figure include the numbers of experiments using reserved beamtime and priority research proposals. In 2002B and 2003A, SPring-8 provided users with 1,893 and 2,244 hours of beamtime in four and five operation cycles, respectively. As for 2002B, 3,508 individuals used the public beamlines in 538 separate experiments, while 1,046 individuals used the contract beamlines in 143 experiments. In 2003A, 3,777 individuals used the public beamlines in 632 separate experiments, while 1,347 individuals used the contract beamlines in 172 experiments. From October 1997, when SPring-8 was opened to the public, through 2003A, a total of 34,172 public and contract beamline Fig. 3. Number of users and experiments conducted. 1998A 1999A 1999 B 2000A 2000B 2001A 2001B 2002A Half-year Research Term x E f o r e b m u N p t n e m i r e s 400 200 600 800 0 1000 1200 2000 1000 3000 4000 0 5000 6000 s r e s U f o r e b m u N 1997B 2002B 2003A u sers conducted 5,197 experiments. Figures 4 and 5 i 5 ndicate the numbers of selected proposals by affiliation of applicants and by research fields from 1997B to 2003A. As can be seen from the charts, as for the classification by affiliation, universities have accounted for approximately 70% and other organizations have made up the rest almost equally. The percentage of approved proposals from overseas was 4% for 2002B and 6% for 2003A. The ratio of Life Science, Diffraction & Scattering and the others has been 1:1:1 since the inauguration of SPring-8. The ratio of XAFS, Spectroscopy and M e t h o d & I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n , a l l o f w h i c h a r e categorized as “the others,” has also been 1:1:1. 5 5 5 5 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 145 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 Research Term Research Term User Time User Time (hours) (hours) Public BL Public BL Contract BL Contract BL Experiments Experiments Users Users 681 1,252 1,542 1,631 2,486 2,370 2,915 3,277 3,246 3,508 3,777 26,685 TOTAL 4,263 934 7,487 21,088 Experiments Experiments Users Users 1997B: 1997.10 - 1998.03 1998A: 1998.04 - 1998.10 1999A: 1998.11 - 1999.06 1999B: 1999.09 - 1999.12 2000A: 2000.02 - 2000.06 2000B: 2000.10 - 2001.01 2001A: 2001.02 - 2001.06 2001B: 2001.09 - 2002.02 2002A: 2002.02 - 2002.07 2002B: 2002.09 - 2003.02 2003A: 2003.02 - 2003.07 1,286 1,702 2,585 1,371 2,106 1,558 2,381 94 234 274 242 365 382 473 486 543 538 632 7 33 65 100 88 102 114 110 143 172 467 427 794 620 766 977 1,043 1,046 1,347 1,893 2,093 1,893 2,244 3681 575 681 380 472 1997B 1998A 1999A 1999B 2000A 2000B 2001A 2001B 2002A 2002B 2003A 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 2003A 2002B 2002A 2001B 2001A 2000B 2000A 1999B 1999A 1998A 1997B U ntil FY2002, there were only general and long- term proposals and the proposals using beamtime reserved for JASRI. In FY2003, the new scheme for the management of public beamlines was established, based on the report on SPring-8 by the governmental review committee. The report called on SPring-8 to further promote the use of public beamlines to produce more research results. The important point of the report was to launch the Priority Research Program. The new scheme is shown in Table IV. As can be seen from the table, beamtime not exceeding 50% is allocated to the Priority Research Proposals and Fig. 5. Number of selected proposals by research fields (public beamlines). Fig. 4. Number of selected proposals by affiliation of applicants (public beamlines). p roposals using beamtime reserved for JASRI, so that more than 50% of the total user beamtime is guaranteed for general and long-term proposals. The scheme for Priority Research Program is intended to make the best use of SPring-8 and produce more research results. The Priority Research Proposals are tentatively categorized into the following three groups: - Priority Field Proposal, - Power User Proposal and - Strategy Proposal. 1 1 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 146 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 Foreign Private Sector Private College Government-designated Foundation Nonprofit Foundation National Laboratory Municipal & Prefectural College National University Life Science Diffraction & Scattering XAFS Method & Instrumentation Industry Spectroscopy Table IV. New beamtime allocation scheme for public beamlines. JASRI designates research fields which are expected to produce excellent research results or fields of strategic significance. The Priority Field Proposals are further categorized into three subgroups: Nanotechnology Support, Protein 500 and Industrial Use. These proposals are reviewed before General Proposals at the review committees designated for each priority field. The outline of each priority research field is as follows: Nanotechnology Support This research field is to support the development in nanotechnology, using 11 beamlines at SPring-8. Nanotechnology Support at SPring-8 had already s t a r t e d i n 2 0 0 2 u n d e r t h e N a n o t e c h n o l o g y Researchers Network Project (Nanonet Project) of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and was consolidated into the Priority Research Program in FY2003. In 2002B and 2003A, a total of 120 proposals were selected from 183 submitted proposals. This Project is valid until FY2006. Industrial Use As part of industrial use, the Trial Use Program originally ran from 2001B to 2002A, for the purpose of attracting new users to SPring-8, mainly from industries and restarted as one of the Priority Field Proposals in 2003A. In 2003A, 14 Trial Use proposals were selected from 17 proposals; Since 2001B, 36 proposals were selected from 39 proposals. Protein 500 Just as Nanotechnology Support, Protein 500 at SPring-8 started shortly after MEXT launched the Protein 3000 Project in 2002 as a post-human genom program to analyze 3,000 kinds of protein structures and was taken over as the Priority Field Program in FY2003. Under the Project, three of SPring-8 structural biology beamlines are assigned to analyze 500 kinds of protein structures, and 30% of their beamtime is allocated every year. In 2002B and 2003A, a total of 141 proposals were selected. This Project is valid until FY2006. This category refers to proposals of user groups who have full knowledge of beamline instrumentation and are highly likely to produce outstanding research results in the future also. Such user groups are designated as Power Users (PUs) by JASRI and expected to provide support for general users. In return for their support, up to 20% of beamtime of relevant beamlines can be used by the PUs. First such PUs are to be designated for 2003B. Power User Proposal Priority Field Proposal Details of each proposal are provided below. Strategy Proposals are expected to contribute to promoting research at SPring-8 including the development of new technologies necessary for the facility operation. JASRI will conduct such research by itself or jointly with other organizations. Strategy Proposal Separately from General Proposals, SPring-8 has created a system for the long-term use of beamlines, where beam access is guaranteed for up to three years. This system aims to further promote research that is expected to produce outstanding results in the field of science and technology, to pave the way for Priority Research Proposal • Priority Field Proposal (Open call) • Power User Proposal • Strategy Proposal Priority Research Proposal • Priority Field Proposal (Open call) • Power User Proposal • Strategy Proposal 50% 50% 100% 80% 0% Adjustment of allocation Proposal Review Committee JASRI Urgent Proposal (Open call) Time-designated Proposal (Open call) In-house Proposal • R&D Proposal • Staff Proposal Urgent Proposal (Open call) Time-designated Proposal (Open call) In-house Proposal • R&D Proposal • Staff Proposal Allocation Percentage General Proposal (Open call) Long-term Proposal (Open call) General Proposal (Open call) Long-term Proposal (Open call) 147 new research areas and research methodology and to help improve the technology for industrial base significantly by making the best use of SPring-8 characteristics. In 2003A, one proposal was selected from four proposals; The total of eight proposals have been selected from 27 proposals since 2000B. As well as the promotion of research activities in the field of basic science, the contribution to the reinforcement of the technological base in industry has been one of the main pillars of the SPring-8 Project. The coordinator system, introduced in FY2000 to support industrial use mainly through consultation, is a case in point. Equally important is the Trial Use Program. This program aims to revitalize local industries and to create and promote new industries. Public beamline BL19B2, Engineering Science Research Beamline, built to promote SR use by industries, is the main beamline used for the Trial Use Program. There are three contract beamlines, which were constructed by Industrial Consortium and Pharmaceutical Consortium, for the use by the consortium members. In addition to the above, workshops and training courses are to be noted. These courses are intended for a variety of research fields and SR instrumentation and were attended by a total of 1,150 industrial users from FY2000 through FY2002. SPring-8 consisting of accelerators, beamlines and facilities for users, was constructed by the JAERI/RIKEN Project Team during the period from 1991 through 1997 at the total cost of about 110 billion yen. In 1994, JASRI was designated by the Law regarding Promotion of Common Use of the Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SPring-8) as the Organization for the Promotion of Synchrotron Radiation Research to be responsible for managing SPring-8. As a result, the SPring-8 research complex has been formed by JAERI Kansai Research Establishment, RIKEN Harima Institute and JASRI. JASRI has been entrusted by JAERI and RIKEN with the Users conducting proprietary research are charged beamtime fees. Proprietary research is essential when users have commercially confidential information in their experiment or sample and do not want to disclose their research results. In 2002B, 14 proprietary experiments were performed at public beamlines and 24 at contract beamlines; In 2003A, 14 experiments were conducted at public beamlines and 23 experiments at contract beamlines. During the period from 1999B, when the system was introduced, to 2003A, a total of 142 experiments have been carried out at both public and contract beamlines. The Pharmaceutical Consortium has spent about 75% of their beamtime on proprietary research at their contract beamline, BL32B2. SPring-8 users are not charged for non-proprietary research as long as they submit an experiment report within sixty days after their experiments. When their results are disclosed in scientific journals or any other form of publication, the project leaders are required to report to JASRI and have the results registered with JASRI. As of September 30, 2003, the number of refereed publications is 1,296 (928 for public use, 120 for contract beamlines and 232 for JAERI and RIKEN beamlines; The results at two or more beamlines are counted at each beamline.)
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