Research Frontiers 2014 Research Frontiers 2014 Research Frontiers 2014 Research Frontiers 2014 135 As described in the next section in detail, SPring-8 was stably operated throughout 2014 with the total operation time of the storage ring and the total user beam time of 5081 h and 4058 h, respectively. The total downtime amounted to 17 h, which is less than 0.42% of the total operation time, giving almost 100% beamtime availability to users. The total number of proposals submitted in 2014 reached 1904, among which 1454 were accepted. Regarding the SPring-8 utilization system, there were three improvements implemented. First, it has become compulsory for proposals of industrial applications to include, at least, an investigator who is employed by a private company or related institution. This is to further facilitate scientific cooperation between industry and academia. Second, the public beamline portfolio for macromolecular crystallography, consisting of BL41XU, BL38B1, BL32XU, BL26B1 and BL26B2, has become more efficient by introducing a flexible beamtime allocation management system. The improved beamline portfolio is expected to efficiently and effectively meet the beamtime requests recently increasing in this field. Third, a new proposal category called the Social Interest Program has started calling for proposals. The aim of the program is to proactively support those users joining SPring-8 from archaeology, paleontology, space science, and so forth, to the outcome from which public in general has a high- level of interest. Concerning the contract beamlines, there were two interim reviews conducted for “BL03XU Advanced Softmaterial (Advanced Softmaterial Beamline Consortium)” and “BL36XU Catalytic Reaction Dynamics for Fuel Cells (The University of Electro- Communications),” both of which were authorized to continue their projects. Upon the expiration of their contract terms, review were also conducted for “BL33LEP Laser-Electron Photon (Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University)” and “BL08B2 Hyogo BM (Hyogo Prefecture),” and their proposals for the next terms were both approved. Over the course of the year, various types of scientific meetings were held, such as the SPring-8 Symposium, SPring-8 Conference, and The Joint Conference on Industrial Applications of SPring-8, in order to keep active dialogues between SPring-8 and its users community, SPRUC. SPring-8 I. Introduction
home
- JP
- EN