Guidelines: Mail-In Commercial Beamtime (IM)

Creation of Experiment Number

If it is the first time that you use the ESRF, the BDO will create your experiment number (IM-**), which once attributed, is valid until further notice.

Invitation

An Invitation email is sent to the Main Contact, in which there are various instructions, including on how to submit the A Form.  Attached is an Experiment Protocol - see below.

As Main Contact, you are only able to edit and/or submit the A Form when you receive this email Invitation.

You should return to ESRF User Portal, log on with your last name and password, click on "Proposals/Experiments" (top blue tab) then "A Forms" in the drop-down menu and your scheduled experiment will be shown. Select "Edit A Form".

Please ensure that you fill in all 3 Tabs: Users, Samples, Sample Environment. Read the warning messages in red at the top of the page!

"Users" Tab

Under the Tab "Users", the Main Contact should enter him/herself or the person that will be our main contact for this experiment. Only one person may be added here.

"Samples" Tab

Under the "Samples" Tab, select the Sample sheets for this experimental session, create new ones or modify existing ones - see the chapter "Sample Sheets"  below for further information.  If you forget to attach the Sample Sheets, when submitting the A Form, you will receive an error message.

"Sample Environment" Tab

Under the "Sample Environment" Tab, check the relevant boxes.

Submission of A Form

You may prepare the A Form without submitting it - select "Temporarily Save A Form" at the top of the page.

The A Form should be submitted electronically as early as possible, and at least two weeks before the experiment is due to begin.  When the A Form is submitted, an automatic email message is generated to several services at the ESRF.

If there are changes to the scheduled experiment, eg. change of scientist, date, beamline etc. once the A Form has been submitted, a new Invitation will be issued and the Main Contact needs to return to the ESRF User Portal in order to re-submit the A Form. However, if possible, please avoid multiple submissions of the A Form for the above reason.

Please note also that in order to be able to submit the A Form, you must validate an Electronic Safety Declaration and follow the on-line Mail In safety training - see below.

Electronic Safety Declaration

The Main Contact should log on to the ESRF User Portal, select "Experiments" (top blue tab) then "A Forms" in the drop-down menu. All scheduled experiments will be shown. Select the relevant session - there is a red circle "To Do" under "Declaration". Click on here and check the box "I declare...." then Validate.

On-line Mail-in Safety Training

To do the on-line Mail-In safety training, the Main Contact should log on to the ESRF User Portal, select "Safety" (top blue tab), then "User safety training" in the drop-down menu, then "Mail In access training".  Read all the pages carefully, as if you answer any of the questions at the end wrongly, the system will cancel the entire training and you will have to do it all again! This training is valid for one year.

The Main Contact must create Sample Sheets to attach to the experiment number. The electronic Sample Sheet, which supplies detailed information on the sample(s), is transmitted to the Safety Group and the Local Contact.

There are two ways to create new Sample Sheets:

1) Log on to the ESRF User Portal, select "Proposals/Experiments" (top tab) then "Proposals" in the drop-down menu - select tab "Proposals with Final Number", you will see your scheduled experiment. On this line, click on the icon on the right, "Manage your Samples" and all your existing samples for this experiment will be listed. At the bottom of this page, you will see "Click to add a new sample to this proposal" - click on the "+" sign.

2) Log on to the ESRF User Portal, select "Proposals/Experiments" (top tab) then "A Forms" in the drop-down menu - select your session, click on "Edit" or "View A Form" - under the Samples tab, click on Quick Link "manage samples".  All your existing samples for this experiment will be listed. At the bottom of this page, you will see "Click to add a new sample to this proposal" - click on the "+" sign.

Once connected to the A Form, under the Tab "Samples", select the sample(s) you will study during your experimental session in the list of "All Samples defined for the Proposal". This will create a new list of "Samples to study in this Experiment Session" which will be automatically attached to the A Form when submitted and will be communicated to the Safety Group.

You may submit as many Sample Sheets as required for your scheduled experiment.

You may view, edit or delete your Sample Sheets: follow the above procedure to get to the page listing all the samples. Select your sample, then under "Actions", click on the appropriate icon depending on what you want to do.

You may duplicate a Sample Sheet that was created for a previous experiment where you were registered as either Main Contact or Co-Proposer: follow the procedure as above. At the bottom of the page listing all the samples, you will see "Duplicable existing Samples information". Select the samples that you wish to duplicate for the current session.

If you use the ESRF again for another mail-in experiment, once you have received the Invitation which validates your new session, simply create and attach Sample Sheets to this new experimental session, to be submitted with the A Form.

You are strongly recommended to avoid a late submission of new Sample Sheets. Please keep in mind that ALL Sample Sheets have to be validated by the Safety Group.

Describe the samples carefully as this description is very important.

There are some obligatory fields. If you have not filled them in, the system will not let you submit.

If you have already submitted the A Form, but you wish to add another Sample Sheet, you are obliged to re-submit the A Form. This will generate several automatic emails, so please try to ensure that all the necessary Sample Sheets have been added to the A Form before submitting it the first time.

! NEW !   Remote/Mail-In Experiment Protocol

Attached to the Invitation for your experiment, that you will receive via email, you will also receive our "Remote/Mail In Experiment Protocol" . Please read and fill in the experiment protocol and send it back to our Safety Group (expsaf@esrf.fr) and the Local Contact of your experiment via email. The email address and name of your Local Contact will be mentioned in the Invitation.

! NEW !   ICAT Sample Tracking System    MANDATORY FOR ALL SHIPMENTS

Once your sample sheets have been validated by our Safety Group, i.e. they have been assigned a colour, you will be able to create your parcel for sending the samples via our shipment application ICAT.  To access ICAT, click on "Proposals/Experiments" (top blue tab) then "A Forms" in the drop-down menu and your scheduled experiment will be shown. On the far right of your screen you will find the ICAT symbol - by clicking on it, you will be automatically directed to our sample tracking system. There you need to log on with the same credentials as for the User Portal.

You can find more detailed information about ICAT by following this link: https://www.esrf.eu/ICAT

All samples, chemical products and equipment related to experiments must be sent to the ESRF using our ICAT Sample Tracking software, and then via a registered courier company such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.

Important: please make sure you have requested your registered courier to deal with the return transport as well.

• Under your experiment number, you should create a shipment as above and link it to the appropriate experiment session and A-Form.
• Within that shipment, you should create one or several parcels to send to the ESRF, and in each parcel the you should declare Sample sheets, any chemical products and ancillary equipment.
• Once a parcel is ready to be sent, it has to be approved for sending by the ESRF Safety Group. Once it has been approved, two parcel labels become available: 1) for transport to the ESRF and 2) for transport back to you.  The first one must be printed and affixed to the parcel by the client.  The second one must be put inside the parcel for the return.
• These labels contain the address and a QR code which allows the parcel to be tracked.
• Any parcels containing samples, substances or equipment sent for an experiment and that do not display this label will be returned immediately to the user the first time; any further shipments that are made with no label - the entire parcel will be destroyed, since they will not have been approved by the Safety Group for sending to, and reception by, the ESRF.

Local Contact

All external users using the mail-in service are, of course, required to have an ESRF-accepted scientist as a Local Contact who is familiar with the beamline and instrument set-up.

Safety Considerations

Experimental conditions requiring special safety precautions such as the use of lasers, high pressure cells, bacteria, viruses, dangerous substances, toxic substances and radioactive materials, must be clearly stated in your Sample Sheets.

Further information can be obtained from the Experimental Safety Officer:
tel: +33 (0)4 76 88 21 76 - fax: +33 (0)4 76 88 29 36

Conclusion

We are interested in your opinion - please contact the Industrial Services if you have a problem or simply have a comment to make on this procedure.