Merit Access Beamtime

Merit Access Call for Proposals

The Australian Synchrotron makes three calls every year for applications from New Zealand and Australian researchers for merit access proposals. The next proposal round will be:

For time in 2018/1 round (Sep-Dec)
Opened: 22 August 2017
Closes: 11:59pm on 12 September 2017 (Melbourne time)

Merit access proposals are submitted via the web portal

Ensure that you complete all sections of the proposal form: ‘Experiment’, ‘Researchers’, ‘Beamline’, ‘Samples’, ‘Figures’, ‘Submit’.

Applicants must select a beamline from the following list:

For the MX beamlines, applications are made for collaborative access programme (CAP) time. Applications can only be made once a year although a small amount of rapid access (RA) time is available. More information about these types of proposals can be found at

http://www.synchrotron.org.au/features/mx-cap-proposals

Click on the links above to find out more information about each beamline. You are strongly advised to contact the relevant beamline scientist to discuss your experiment before submitting a proposal. Contact us if you require an introduction.

This call is available to New Zealand researchers who are regular staff members (not a visitor or adjunct staff member) or enrolled students at one of the institutions who are contributing funding (currently Auckland, AUT, Massey, Waikato, Victoria, Canterbury and Otago universities, GNS Science, AgResearch and Callaghan Innovation).

New Zealand researchers are entitled to 6.6% of the overall amount of merit beamtime available each year, however the actual number of shifts available for each cycle varies from beamline to beamline and is dependent on the number of shifts received in the two previous cycles. New Zealand’s entitlement to beamtime for this cycle will be approximately 63 shifts to be allocated to proposals for all beamlines (except the MX beamlines which have a separate allocation entitlement).

The Australian Synchrotron notifies us of all applicants who are successful in obtaining Merit Access beamtime, so that we can advise you of the travel funding that is available.

NZSG can provide more technical information about the web portal if needed. Please contact us by email: synchrotron@royalsociety.org.nz.