June 2023 ESRFnews10

INSIGHT

But would I still be able to submit individual proposals? Yes, BAG members can still submit proposals outside of their BAG so long as they concern research or need an experimental set-up that does not fall within the scope of the BAG proposal.

In that case, how do I join a BAG? All existing BAGs have a summary page on the ESRF website, describing the scope and providing contact details for potential new members. But if a BAG does not exist, users can form one, and are encouraged to do so if necessary, ESRF beamline scientists can provide information on how many other users work on the same topic or technique. If there are enough other users for a BAG to be worthwhile, the beamline scientists can then assist them to make contact with each other, if they all agree. One PI will have to oversee the running of the BAG, and the BAG members need to agree internally on a selection process for the different projects and beamtimes, but the administration need not be great just one proposal and one report per year on behalf of all the PIs. It s worth it, says Joanne McCarthy, the head of the user office. The aim is to produce the most impactful science in a specific field by serving a wider community in the most efficient way. 

nFor more information and FAQs, visit esrf.fr/CommunityAccess

Jon Cartwright

Why would I want to be in a BAG? There are many reasons, but to summarise in one word: efficiency. It saves time in the submission and review of proposals, and in the scheduling and configuration of the beamlines. High throughput and the use of regular set-ups motivate the optimisation of hardware and software for faster data acquisition and more automated data analysis.

What other advantages are there? The historical materials BAG has shown that, beyond the boost in data- acquisition speed, and consequently in the number of samples analysed per run (now hundreds compared to tens before the EBS), many more first-time synchrotron users are being trained. In only one-and-a-half years, more than 20 first-time users have joined BAG beamtimes, benefiting from the support of more experienced users, says ESRF scientist Marine Cotte. We ve also observed a high interest in remote access, which makes the network even wider, at the European scale, reaching institutes and museums that until now did not dare to apply to the ESRF.

Yet another benefit is that, knowing they are guaranteed regular beamtime access over a two-year period the access is in the bag , if you like BAG members can better plan their experiments according to needs. For instance, they can arrange faster access for urgent analyses, or repeated measurements over months or years to study long-term kinetics.

Victor Gonzalez, scientist responsible for the cultural heritage BAG (ENS Cachan) and Catherine Dejoie, ESRF scientist at the ID22 beamline.

What is a BAG? Until recently, most individual scientists or research groups have had to apply to the ESRF for beamtime on specific projects for a single six-month scheduling period. Now, with the higher demand for and greater potential of the EBS, the ESRF is exploring new access modes. Inspired by an approach that has worked well for many years for structural biologists, the BAG , or block allocation group concept, is now being extended to researchers working on other topics. A BAG involves a community of independent research groups represented by principal investigators (PIs) working in the same field and sharing the same beamline requirements applying to the ESRF together for beamtime. If successful, the PIs are given access to the beamlines required for not one, but four six-month scheduling periods i.e. two years. If the BAG performs well, this can be extended to four years. Every round, the PIs share and distribute the beamtime among themselves, according to self-defined needs and priorities. There are already two BAGs running successfully: one science-driven BAG, which groups PIs according to research field (presently the historical materials community, at ID13 and ID22), and one technique-driven BAG, which groups PIs according to any specialist instrumentation they require (presently the shock BAG at ID19).

A new mode of collective access to the ESRF EBS promises to exploit faster data acquisition on more samples, while enabling long-term planning and regular beamtime access. What s not to like?

It s in the BAG

B R

U N

O L

A V

IT

The aim is to produce the most impactful science in a specific field