Dear all,

There are a number of synchrotron-related opportunities that have recently become available to New Zealand researchers.

Firstly, we have received updated information from the Australian Synchrotron that the first Preferred Access deadline has been extended to 3 December (was previously announced as 9 November). Please note that this is only available for the Protein Crystallography and Infrared beamlines.

Proposals are to be submitted via the Australian Synchrotron website at http://prism.nbi.ansto.gov.au/as/proposal/index.jsp
rather than by email to synchrotron@rsnz.org as previously announced. However, a proposal template and guidelines are available at www.synchrotron.rsnz.org/user/accessing.php as Word documents, which you can use to prepare your proposal off-line, and then copy and paste the relevant sections into the Australian Synchrotron web portal. You are most welcome to send drafts of your proposals to me for proofreading and suggestions.

Secondly, NZSG is now able to accept funding applications. These fall into four categories:
– Travel to the Australian synchrotron, or other synchrotron facilities, for experiments
– ‘Seed funding’ for project costs
– ‘Training’, which includes attendance at conferences, user meetings, summer schools and workshops

More information, and application forms, are available on the website at www.synchrotron.rsnz.org/user/funding.php

In particular I would like to highlight the Australian Synchrotron user meeting which will take place in Melbourne from 12-14 December. If you have submitted a beamtime request in the current round, this is an excellent meeting to attend. Since the date of this meeting is quickly approaching, applications for travel funding will need to be submitted as soon as possible.

Once again, if you know of any colleagues who may be interested in synchrotron experiment possibilities, please forward them this email, and/or let me know their email address so that they can be included on future mail-outs.

If you have any synchrotron-related questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Bridget Ingham