Proposal Calls

2026-A General User Proposal Call 

The submission deadline for the 2026-A General User Proposal Call is October 1, 2025 at Noon (12pm) Eastern.  Proposals awarded beam time will be scheduled to run at HFIR and SNS from January to June 2026.

Due to the extended outage, beam time for HFIR will be limited to fuel cycle 516 for the 2026-A proposal call (projected to run April – May 2026).

Researchers should apply directly via the Integrated Proposal Tracking System (IPTS). For more information, contact the User Office.

Users are highly encouraged to discuss proposed research with an instrument scientist for feedback before submitting. New PIs may be interested in applying for beamtime through the New User Beamtime (NUBe) program.

Important Dates

Submission deadline: October 1, 2025 at Noon (12pm) Eastern

Award period: January to June 2026

  • SNS: projected to run March to June, 2026
  • HFIR: projected to run May 2026 (HFIR fuel cycle 516)

Award notification by December 8, 2025

 

Instrument updates:

BASIS/BL-2 - Users are asked to communicate with the instrument team before submitting a proposal if you will request an experiment with: Temperatures below 5K or above 650K, any pressure or gas environment, or any other specific requests outside of the instruments regular capabilities.

CNCS/BL-5 - For dilution refrigerator inserts, proposals must be discussed before submission with a beamline scientist and beamtime awards are subject to helium and personnel resources. For CCR experiments, proposals must be discussed before submission with a beamline scientist. 

VENUS/BL-10 - The VENUS beamline will provide epithermal/thermal TOF and white beam imaging capabilities across a field-of-view of 28 x 28 mm2. We recommend you contact VENUS imaging scientist Hassina Bilheux (bilheuxhn@ornl.gov) to discuss feasibility of your project(s) and to learn more about VENUS. Additional information about VENUS is available on the instrument webpage.

MaNDi/BL-11B - MaNDi beam time requests include access to the protein deuteration and crystallization facilities when necessary. Users should select “BDL-2 Bio-Deuteration Lab” as a second instrument to request support for sample preparation. Proposals remain active for up to four proposal cycles (up to two years) or when the number of beam days allocated have been used, whichever comes first. Ongoing temperature and humidity variability across the beamline hutch limits data collection to non-temperature sensitive crystal system. Contact the beamline team to discuss crystals and crystallization solution composition. Please contact the beamline team for additional information.

IMAGINE/CG-4D - IMAGINE will not be available in the 2026-A proposal call due to the IMAGINE-X instrument build.

POWDER/HB-2A - Due to the HFIR outage this year and the planned detector upgrade (MIDAS) in 2026, the number of available days to allocate in the 2026-A cycle will be limited.

DEMAND/HB-3A – Experiments during cycle 516 will be limited to CCR only.

 

New User Beamtime (NUBe) Program

The NUBe program aimed at growing the neutron scattering user community and increasing the scientific and institutional diversity of our user base. Time will be allocated for NUBe proposals on each instrument participating in this call. For eligibility in this program, the Principal Investigator must hold a permanent position at their institution (i.e., any rank of faculty member or staff). Undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs are not eligible, but may participate as collaborators on the proposal. See the the New User Beamtime (NUBe) program webpage for more information.

 

New Experiment Lead Role and PI requirements

Effective February 2025, the Principal Investigator (PI) listed on a proposal must be the team member who has overall responsibility for the research group and someone who holds a permanent position at their institution, such as Assistant Professor, Professor, Research Scientist or Professional Staff. The Principal Investigator (PI) role can only be assigned to an individual with an active IPTS account. See Step 5 on the How to Submit a Proposal webpage for instructions to create an account. 

A new Experiment Lead role is now available to indicate a co-primary contact on a proposal. A team member who is Undergraduate, Graduate or Post-doctoral Research Associate and who is serving as primary contact for experiment planning and/or conduct should be designated the Experiment Lead. The Experiment Lead has the same proposal access as the PI. The Experiment Lead can edit a proposal, confirm a proposal awarded beam time, add samples, and add team members. The Experiment Lead is copied on all proposal-related messages sent to the PI.  

Every proposal must have a PI. Experiment Lead is an optional role but, if used, there can be no more than one Experiment Lead designated.  

 

Mail-In Program Expansion for HFIR and SNS Instruments

Mail-In proposals are available as a rapid access mode outside of our bi-annual proposal calls, and can be submitted in IPTS anytime. Mail-In proposals are limited to one day experiments, in which users send samples by mail for instrument staff to collect data on the user's behalf. Mail-in experiments are expected to contribute to a publication, unlike Proof of Principal proposals which are available for testing the feasibility of a potential experiment. Mail-In proposals should be submitted for the cycle in which you anticipate samples being ready to send for analysis. We have recently expanded the program to 11 instruments at HFIR and SNS: ARCS, EQ-SANS, GP-SANS, HYSPEC, NOMAD, POWGEN, SEQUOIA, SNAP, VISION, VULCAN, and WAND². Visit the individual instrument web page for more information about the Mail-In proposal requirements for that instrument, and to download an instrument specific Statement of Research template (if available).

 

Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) Resources Available

The Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) provides access to staff expertise and state-of-the-art equipment for a broad range of nanoscience research, including nanomaterials synthesis and deuteration, nanofabrication, imaging/microscopy/characterization, and theory/modeling/simulation.

New upcoming CNMS features in IPTS: Requests for CNMS characterization time and/or chemical deuteration support can be made from the Other Experiment Resources step during proposal submission. In this step, users interested in CNMS support can select from a menu of deuterated monomers and request information from CNMS about other available services. Eight Deuterated Monomers are available to be requested through CNMS. The updated IPTS release is expected to occur before the proposal call deadline, and these new features will go live at that time (this page will be updated once available).

Questions about the CNMS facilities can be submitted to cnmsuser@ornl.gov. Users may also submit a proposal directly to CNMS.