General Information
DESY Photon Science offers the possibility to apply for Block Allocation Group (BAG) proposals for protein crystallography at PETRA III beamline P11, medium resolution powder diffraction at PETRA III beamline P02.1, the imaging beamline P05 or other selected beamlines (as announced in the calls).
Please consult the webpage for detailed information on the respective beamlines.
Briefly:
- For a BAG at least 5 independent research groups are required, each of them being responsible for one subproject.
- BAG proposals will be valid for two years.
- The total amount of shifts for one BAG proposal is limited to 72 shifts (1 shift = 8 hours of beamtime).
- BAG members are responsible for the distribution of assigned shifts among the BAG research groups.
- the BAG members should aim at distributing the requested shifts evenly over the whole period of two years
- BAG members are expected not to submit any additional regular proposals with similar scientific objectives to the same beamline.
If you have any questions on the BAG regulations and requirements, or on the beamline itself, it is strongly recommended to contact the P11 beamline manager, P02.1 beamline manager or P05 beamline manager prior to proposal submission.
Proposal submission
For proposal submission, a valid DOOR account for BAG coordinator and each BAG member is required (for registration: DOOR)
The BAG proposal needs to be submitted by the BAG coordinator via DOOR. For proposal submission the following information is required:
- BAG proposal as PDF file (for details on proposal format and content see below)
- Information on all persons acting as BAG members. For each subproject at least one member has to be listed acting as contact person for this subproject. The contact persons should at least be scientist at PostDoc level. The contact persons and any additional BAG members have to register in DOOR prior to proposal submission.
- The BAG coordinator may also act as BAG member if she/he contributes an own subproject to the BAG proposal.
- Total number of shifts to be requested for the whole BAG
Proposal Content
Please use the BAG proposal template which is provided via DOOR and on the right hand side of this page for the preparation of your BAG proposal.
The BAG proposal has to include the following information:
Part A) Summary
- explain the overall goal of the BAG
- list a maximum number of 10 relevant publications of BAG members (at least one per subproject)
- Length: 2 pages following the layout in the BAG proposal template
Part B) Description of each individual subproject
- list names of BAG members related to the subproject
- scientific background and significance
- goals and objectives
- safety issues, and special technical requirements (if applicable)
- Length: 1 page per subproject following the layout in the BAG proposal template
Responsibilities of BAG coordinator and BAG members
BAG coordinator
The BAG coordinator should be an experienced senior scientist.
Tasks: Proposal submission, communication between BAG members (e.g. coordination of the distribution of shifts among different BAG members), submission of final report. The BAG coordinator is not expected to take care of the administrative steps related to the individual beamtimes (see below).
BAG members
For proposal submission at least one BAG member has to be listed per subproject. This BAG member will act as a contact person for her/his specific subproject and should at least be a scientist at PostDoc level. Additional BAG members can be added by the BAG coordinator during submission or at any time after proposal acceptance.
BAG members are responsible for the submission of beamtime application(s) for their BAG subproject via DOOR. The respective BAG member is responsible for the administrative handling of the beamtime.
PLEASE NOTE:
Even if several BAG groups join for a visit at the beamline it is recommended that for each BAG subproject an individual beamtime request is submitted. Only this ensures that
- data aquisition can be performed separately for each subproject
- travel reimbursement can be requested and approved for individual BAG groups (otherwise only three persons can be reimbursed)
- respective reports can be submitted
If agreed by the BAG members also one shared application can be used.
For each experimental visit at the beamline the following administrative steps have to be completed by the BAG member who has requested the beamtime:
Tasks before each beamtime: As a first step submission of experiment specification (=beamtime application) by the individual BAG member is required. After the requested beamtime has been scheduled an e-mail notification will be sent. Then, declaration of substances for each experiment, registration of all experiment participants, submission of travel support requests have to be submitted (all via DOOR by BAG member).
Tasks after each beamtime: submission of experimental report and feedback form, registration of all publications based on results of the BAG subproject in the DESY publication database (via DOOR).
Proposal review
BAG proposals will be reviewed by a committee of external experts (Project Review Panel). Please note that the BAG proposal will be rated as a whole and no ratings will be given for the individual subprojects.
Steps to be taken after proposal acceptance
The BAG coordinator and all BAG members registered prior to proposal submission will be informed about the acceptance of the BAG proposal via e-mail.
After proposal acceptance it will be possible to submit experiment specifications (= beamtime applications) in order to apply for beamtime for individual subprojects via DOOR. Please note that experiments will only be scheduled after submission of an experiment specification (=beamtime application).
The BAG coordinator should discuss the rough planning of the beamtimes with the beamtime staff as soon as possible.
Once the beamtime has been scheduled the BAG member will be informed by e-mail, and has to complete all further steps for experiment preparation via DOOR (declaration of substances, registration of participants, request of travel reimbursement etc.) and for reporting (experimental reports, feedback, registration of publications).
Travel cost reimbursement
Travel cost reimbursement will be offered according to the general rules of DESY Photon Science outlined here.
For each experimental stay, requests for travel reimbursement have to be submitted via DOOR before the stay at DESY.
Briefly, users from German universities are eligible for travel cost reimbursement including travel, hostel and daily allownace. Users from universities in EU and EU-associated countries can apply for coverage of DESY Hostel costs.
Users from research institutions (e.g. for Germany: Helmholtz, Leibniz, MPG) are excluded from travel support.
For BAG proposals the following applies:
For each scheduled experimental stay, reimbursement can be requested for a maximum number of three participants. For experimental stays shorter than 3 consecutive shifts not more than two persons will be reimbursed.
