1. Application period, how to submit proposal, etc.

【Application period】

From October 17 - November 7, 2023 at 17:00 Japan Time (UTC+09:00)
Demand on the Proposal Submission System is typically very high on the closing day. You are strongly recommended to submit your proposal well in advance of the deadline.

【Submission】

The proposals should be submitted via J-PARC Proposal Submission System.
Please log in to J-PARC Proposal Submission System from J-PARC Portal.
(If you use the Portal for the first time, please read “Beginner’s Guide” in the upper right corner of the page.)

【Research plan template】

For short-term proposals…Ver. 2024A
For one-year proposals…Ver. 2024A+2024B
Downloaded the template file from here.
Application will not be accepted if the latest template file is not used.

【Estimation of beamtime】

Please estimate the beamtime with beam power of 800 kW.

【Language for application】

English

*Limited to application for P7 Industrial Applications and P9 New User Promotion, Japanese is also available.

【Eligibility to apply】

• Researchers belonging to a university, private company, public research institute, etc.
• Graduate students (masters and PhD students) *

Regarding applicants belonging to the organizations listed in the Foreign End User List of METI or the nationals of non-NPT countries, eligibility to apply is decided in consultation with MEXT etc.

*Points to note for graduate student proposals:

• Please contact the instrument scientists in advance.
• Enter “Graduate Student” in the field of the applicant’s job title.
• The applicant’s academic supervisor as well as a person who will attend and supervise the experiment as an experiment supervisor must be registered as Collaborators. In the fields of their job titles, add “AS” and “ES” after his/her job title respectively.
  e.g. : Professor, AS Research staff, ES Professor, AS, ES
  ※Applications without AS and ES will not be received.
• The experiment supervisor (ES) must be either an academic staff member of the applicant’s university which includes his/her academic supervisor or a research collaborator (not including graduate students).

2. Types of proposals

For More Information

*A pre-application is required to apply.

**The proposals that involve the development of experimental techniques can be submitted as one-year proposals.

3. Cases requiring prior consultation

【Sample environment and experiment conditions】

Please consult the instrument scientists in advance about the sample environment and experiment conditions. The proposal may not be approved if it is considered that the experiment cannot be implemented because the necessary sample environment/experiment conditions cannot be provided.
Contact information: List of Instruments

【Proposals using BL16】

Please be sure to contact the instrument scientist in advance to discuss the experiment details if you apply for beamtime of BO16 (SOFIA, Soft Interface Analyzer)
Contact information:BL16

If you will use your own equipment other than that provided in the facility, you have to consult with the instrument scientist in advance during the preparation stage of the proposal application.

• Neutron beamlines:
  Please contact the instrument scientist of the beamline from here.

• Muon beamlines:
  Even if a muon section member will be a collaborator responsible for coordinating with the facility, please note that prior consultation with the instrument scientist is strongly required.
  Contact information: Muon D1、Muon D2、Muon S1

J-PARC Center is accepting consultations from first time and novice users of neutron/muon beamlines. If you are considering using the neutron/muon beamlines, please contact us through Neutron and Muon Users Poral Site (J-JOIN).

4. Selection of the review field

The submitted proposals are reviewed by each research field. Please choose the appropriate research field when applying.
List of keywords for each research field.

5. Instruments available for this proposal round

Please contact the instrument scientists for the specification of the instrument etc.

6. Points to note for proposal application

• If you cite text or figures from other papers or other sources, please be sure to clearly indicate the source of the citation. If plagiarism is identified in the application during the review process, the application may be withdrawn.
• Please obtain the consent of the person concerned before adding them to your list of collaborators. This also applies when the collaborator is an MLF staff member. Proposals may be rejected if a person is included as a collaborator without his/her consent.
• Use of samples including nuclear fuel materials/elements is prohibited. Only RI samples permitted by the MLF may be used.
• Users who intend to bring in electrical equipment whose power output rating is 7.5kW and above/7.5kVA and above or equipment whose current rating is 30A and above must include the detailed equipment specifications in the research plan.
• KEK beamlines (refer to “Instruments available”) cannot accept undergraduate students as Collaborators. However, they can participate in the research as interns. If a graduate student participates as a Collaborator, write “Graduate Student” in the field of the job title.
• If researchers belonging to a private company want to use a muon instrument, please contact us at the email address indicated at the bottom in advance.
• J-PARC also welcomes P-type proposals to conduct test experiments in preparation for general use and Project use (S-type use) proposal as well as proposals from the users who have no experience in muon use. For more details, please click here..

7. Indication of keywords

Please list up to 5 keywords that briefly describe the proposal in the Research Plan template.

8. Complementary Use proposals

Please indicate if your proposed research includes, or is likely to include in the future, the complementary use of other major research facilities such as, but not limited to, synchrotron radiation sources (SPring-8, SACLA, PF, etc.), JRR-3, supercomputer (HPCI including Fugaku computer etc.), or other quantum beam facilities. If the above applies to your proposal, indicate the details in the Research Plan template. This information will be used only to survey current trends in research proposals at the MLF.

9. Evaluation process and criteria

• Submitted proposals will be reviewed, through the prescribed review process, from comprehensive and specialized viewpoints based on the evaluation criteria. The beamtime of the proposal will be determined in consideration of the scientific merits of the proposal and adequacy of the necessary beamtime.
  
• If the review panel has judged that there is a more appropriate beamline than the one requested, the beamline may be changed.

10. Conditions for conducting experiments for approved proposals

• The PI is required to read and accept MLF User Agreement and, before conducting the experiment, submit the consent form.
• In principle, the instrument scientists will not conduct the experiment on behalf of the users. Please ensure that the PI or another team member comes to the MLF to conduct the experiment (including the preparation).
  
• If the PI and the instrument scientist agree by 30 days prior to the scheduled experiment day that there is no prospect of implementing the experiment, the beamtime will be canceled. (If such a member is coming from abroad and a visa is necessary, be sure that he/she can obtain an appropriate visa.)
  
• Please refer to the websites of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for information on necessary procedures, conditions for coming to Japan, etc.
  
• Experiment is not allowed to be implemented if it is attended only by students (including graduate students).
  
• In principle, experiments implemented by non-residents of Japan or residents of Japan with strong association to foreign countries are subject to export control (research team members, sample, obtained data, etc.). Please note that there is a case where the implementation of the experiment will not be permitted depending on the results of the screening of export control even if the proposal application has been received or the experiment has been approved through proposal selection screening.

11. Usage fee for Proprietary Use Proposals

Usage fee is 2,983,000 JPY (tax included)/ day

12. Publication of results (Non-Proprietary Use Proposals)

• From 2024A beamtime period, the users of Non-Proprietary Use proposals are required to submit the beamtime use report.
• The users of Non-Proprietary Use proposals are required to submit the experiment report within 60 days after the end of the experiment period that the experiment was conducted (deadline of report is here). If the report is not submitted, the fee will be charged to the user. (Note: This measure does not apply to the joint use of KEK beamlines.)
• If the experiment report is not submitted after the deadline, the PI cannot apply for beamtime in the following proposal rounds. (He/she cannot participate the experiment as a collaborator.)
• The experiment report will be published on the J-PARC website after six months from the submission deadline.
• If the experiment report is not submitted, the fee collection procedure will begin 30 days after the deadline for the report submission.

13. Publication of experiment results

• Please publish the results of the experiment within 3 years counting from the April 1 after the experiment is completed.
• The publication will be in the form of peer-reviewed papers, peer-reviewed proceedings, doctoral dissertations, patents, public technical reports, or annual reports and achievement collections published by J-PARC Center.
• When publishing the results, it is recommended to consult with the instrument scientists in advance about who should be the co-author.
• It is also important to take into account the support provided by the instrument scientists and other staffs maintaining and operating the facility when deciding the co-authors. Please indicate the proposal number and the beamline(s) used for the experiment in the publishment. (Sample Acknowledgements)

14. Disclosure of information on proposals and experiment data

15. Additional call for proposals

There may be an additional call for proposals in the case where the total of the applied beamtime in this call for proposal is less than the available beamtime. In that case, information will be released on the website etc.

16. Notification of review result

The review results will be sent to the applicants’ email addresses registered in the Proposal Submission System. The provisional notification will be sent around February 2024, and the official notification is planned to be sent after all the review process has been completed, which will be in March 2024.

17. Contact Us