Industrial and Proprietary Users

Industry Users

Argonne encourages industrial use of the advanced scientific tools available here at the APS. As an established technique, powder diffraction at 11-BM attracts attracts a growing number of industrial users each year. These industries represent a diverse range of technology and science, from pharmaceutical to aerospace industries.

Contact the APS User Office ([email protected]) for general information about industrial access to the APS (phone: 630-252-9090, or email: [email protected]).

Steps for Industrial Access

• Contact beamline staff to discuss your proposed experiment or measurements.

• Establish a Proprietary User or General User Agreement (see below). This must be done before beamtime can be allocated. Check the list of established agreements, your institution may an existing agreement with Argonne. Read more detailed information about establishing and maintaining proprietary APS user accounts.

• Register as an APS User with the User Office (see User Registration Notes). International users requesting mail-in access only (not traveling to Argonne) may enter "visa applied for" as the type of US visa to bypass this section of the registration form.

• Proprietary users must 'pre-pay' for beamtime in accordance with terms set by the US Dept of Energy. The current proprietary rate is ~ $400/hr (subject to change). In addition to the hourly rate, proprietary users of 11-BM are also charged the equivalent of 1 hour instrument 'set-up' time per proposal. This fixed fee covers sample base shipping, receiving and handling, and if requested, sample return and deletion of non-archived data files. This charge is per rapid access proposal regardless of the number of samples.

• Once the above steps are complete; industrial mail-in access follows the same steps, restrictions, and procedures as described for non-proprietary mail-in access.

• Industrial users should be aware of the APS run Schedule and proposal Calendar dates. No APS beamline can perform experiments during scheduled APS shutdown periods (typically several weeks in Jan, May and Sept each year)

• By default, collected data are retained on APS beamline computers and backup servers, and samples are disposed after the experiment. Proprietary users may request the return of samples and that data is deleted from primary electronic storage at Argonne. Please coordinate with beamline staff for more details.

The APS also has a pilot program in place to grant rapid access measurement time to appropriate industrial users. Several APS beamlines, including 11-BM, are participating in this program. Contact Dennis Mills, the APS Deputy Director for X-ray Science, for more details.

Proprietary Users

The APS distinguishes between proprietary and non-proprietary research.

There is no charge for beamtime related to non-proprietary research intended be published in the open literature. New Users must register, submit a proposal to request time, and should have a General User Agreement in place. These research results will be available to the public. Users are expected to notify the APS of any publications resulting from this work conducted at the APS.

For proprietary work, where the data collected is not intended to be published in the open literature, US law requires that a fee be charged to recover facility costs. In this case, experimental time at APS beamlines is available on a cost-recovery basis under a Proprietary User Agreement.

A proprietary user agreement must be established before any beamtime can be allocated.

Contact the APS User Office ([email protected]) for more information about proprietary user agreements.

By default, collected data are retained on APS beamline computers and backup servers, and samples are disposed after the experiment. At additional cost, proprietary users may request that data is deleted from electronic storage at Argonne and samples are returned. Please coordinate with beamline staff for details prior to submitting a sample under a Proprietary User Agreement.

Note: Argonne personnel cannot participate in experiment design or data analysis under a Proprietary User Agreement. If experiment design or data analysis is desired for proprietary work, that should go through a separate Work-For-Others (WFO) arrangement.