Research Frontiers 2018 Research Frontiers 2018 120 Our seventh year of operations proceeded without any significant issues. Operation statistics are summarized in Table 1. The ratio of downtime to user time was kept below 4%, a reasonably low rate for linac-based light sources. In 2012, two beamlines, BL3 for XFEL and BL1 for broadband spontaneous light, were open for users, while all experiments were conducted with BL3. As the newest beamline, construction of BL2 was completed during the summer shutdown of 2014, and first laser amplification was achieved on October 21. An upgraded beamline for soft X-ray FEL, BL1, which combines the prototype accelerator of SACLA (SCSS), started operation in 2016. For more details, please refer to SACLA Beam Performance in this volume. SACLA calls for public user proposals twice per year. In FY2016, JASRI introduced the proprietary research of General Proposals and the Proprietary Time-Designated Proposals. The project leaders of these proprietary proposals are not required to publish their research results, but required to pay each beamtime fee. In addition, to apply for the proprietary research the project leaders should be affi liated with a corporate enterprise located and registered in Japan. Table 2, Figs. 1 and 2 provide statistics on proposals, users, and beamtime. SACLA Fig. 1 Fig. 2 I. Machine Operation & Beamlines II. User Program and Statistics Table 1 . Operation Statistics for FY2018 Table 2 . Number of proposals submitted, proposals approved/carried out, cumulative users, and beamtime available by research term Total operation time 6281 User time 6270 1224 1854 3192 Facility tuning time Downtime 672 221 Time (h) BL1 BL2 BL3 Total 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Number of Proposals Research Term Proposals Submitted Proposals Approved/Carried Out 2012A 2012B 2013A 2013B 2014A 2014B 2015A 2015B 2016A 2017A 2017B 2016B 2018A 2018B 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Proposals Approved/Carried Out Research Term 2012A 2012B 2013A 2013B 2014A 2014B 2015A 2015B 2016A 2017A 2017B 2016B 2018A 2018B Foreign Industry National or Public Research Institute University or Other Educational Institute One shift = 12 hours at SACLA beamlines 2012A 2012B 2013B 2013A 2014B 2014A 55 49 59 25 27 24 30 28 29 297 461 268 410 400 430 126 154 117 139 147 140 68 49 70 2015A 33 527 144 66 2015B 35 (12) (19) (15) (19) (20) (17) (23) (23) (13) (8) (9) (11) (8) (12) (10) (12) 552 152 63 2016A 34 (21) (12) 538 158 65 2016B 43 (21) (20) 650 197 86 2017A 43 – (43) 577 210 84 2017B 50 – (50) – – – – – – – – (1) (1) (0) (0) – – – – – – – – – (1) (0) (0) 642 244 85 2018A 55 – (55) (0) (0) 643 257 79 2018B 57 – (56) (0) (1) 653 264 95 Half-year Research Term Proposals Submitted Cumulative Users Beamtime Carried Out (Shifts) Proposals Approved / Carried Out Priority Strategy Proposals Non-proprietary Proprietary General Proposals Time-Designated Proposals General Proposals