MMS-EEC Process

Note:

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PIF/NIF/MIF Users, please read this memo before proceeding.

New Terms of Reference for the MMS-EEC

9/4/2019: The terms of reference of the MMS-EEC have been updated to give greater clarity about the evaluation process and the process for rapid access.

Terms of Reference

Five-Step Process for New Proposals or Progress Reports

Below are the steps you need to follow to submit a new proposal or a progress report.

Step 1: Do you need to submit a proposal?

• New Experiments: All new experiments must submit a proposal to be approved by the MMS-EEC. Proceed to Step 2.
• Approved Experiments: Shifts awarded by the MMS-EEC expire after 2 years if they have not been used. Progress reports will only be considered if they are directly related to the original proposal. If this is the case proceed to Step 4. If the proposed research is significantly different from the original proposal a new experiment number will be needed. If this is the case proceed to Step 2. If there are any questions about whether a new experiment number is necessary, the spokespersons should discuss the matter with the MMS-EEC Scientific Secretary (Iain McKenzie iain.mckenzie@triumf.ca)

Step 2: Request a New Experiment Number

Email the Science Divisions office at sciencediv@triumf.ca. You will need to include the Spokespersons’ name(s) and contact information as well as the title of your proposed experiment and whether it is for mSR, b-NMR and PIF & NIF experiments. The Science Division's Administrative Assistant (Allayne McGowan) will issue you an experiment number. Please note:

• The Spokesperson of a proposal is expected to be an active participant in the experiment and invested in its outcome. They are considered to be the contact person for TRIUMF in case of clarification or questions. The Spokesperson will typically be the leader of the proposed research project and will also be considered to be a local representative of a research collaboration, unless otherwise identified. This is important in particular, when the spokesperson is not an expert on µSR, β-NMR/β-NQR, PIF & NIF or other TRIUMF experimental techniques. In some cases, it may be appropriate to identify two spokespersons (e.g. one external User and one internal to TRIUMF), but more than two spokespersons should be the exception and should be discussed in advance with the Scientific Secretary.
• Spokespersons can submit a single proposal to request beam time for μSR experiments on different instruments or different sample environments. Spokespersons must submit separate proposals for μSR and β-NMR experiments. Spokespersons may submit a single proposal to request beam time on different PIF & NIF beamlines.

New TRIUMF users must proceed to Step 3 and existing TRIUMF users can proceed to Step 4.

Step 3: Request Access to the Spokespersons’ Portal

In order to have access to the Spokesperson Portal, we are required to register you and complete an online visitor form for you. Please contact the Science Division’s office at sciencediv@triumf.ca to register. We will be sending you an email that will have your username for your TRIUMF identity (TRIUMF Login) and a link to a form that will need to be completed (the email will come from mis@triumf.ca). You will be granted Electronic Access Only. Iain McKenzie, the MMS Scientific Secretary, will be your main point of contact.

Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: Prepare Your Proposal

Once you have your experiment number and a TRIUMF Login, you can proceed to the Spokesperson Portal (https://mis.triumf.ca/science/experiment/spokesperson/list.jsf) and prepare and submit your new proposal or progress report. Please be sure to fill out all of the information relevant to your experiment. Be sure to upload the PDF of your Detailed Statement and Spokesperson Publications.

We also provide screen-by-screen instructions: please click on the following link: https://www.triumf.ca/sites/default/files/EEC%20Online%20Instructions_1.pdf

Please remember TRIUMF has moved to an 8-hour shift pattern; make sure your requested beam time uses 8-hour shifts.

Detailed Statement

You are required to submit a Detailed Statement of Research describing the proposed research. PLEASE NOTE: There are new templates (MS Word and LaTeX) for the MMS-EEC Detailed Statement of Research that can be downloaded below. The same template is used for both new proposals and progress reports.

The length of the Detailed Statement of Research must not exceed 4 pages (with figures and references included). The font size must be 12 pt. A proposal that exceeds the 4-page limit and/or uses smaller fonts will not be evaluated by the MMS-EEC. The following information must be included:

A.     Background and Context

Provide a concise summary of the scientific problem under investigation including references to literature where appropriate. Explain why the proposed research is interesting and timely. Discuss the wider relevance or impact of your work and keep in mind that not all review panel members are experts in the field. This section should not exceed 1 page.

B.     Description of the Proposed Experiment

Please describe the aims of the experiment – what do you hope to learn, what outcomes you expect and why these are important?

You must provide a clear justification for the proposed experiments and, specifically, a justification for using µSR/β-NMR techniques. What unique information will µSR or β‑NMR give you that you can't get from other techniques? All competitive measurements at other laboratories and with other techniques should be mentioned.

If you are planning to submit a proposal that is related to one reviewed at a previous MMS-EEC meeting you must address any reviewer concerns from the previous proposal in your new proposal.

Please discuss in the proposal if you need any specialized facility equipment or if you wish to use your own equipment. Please note, that non-facility equipment will require a safety review, which is described in TRIUMF Safety Note 3.3. This can be submitted after the proposal is accepted but must be completed well before the beam time.

C.     Preliminary Work

Provide descriptions of material synthesis, structural characteristics, sample characterization such as transport measurements, NMR, X-ray or neutron scattering and any modelling or simulations that relate to the proposed research (when applicable).

Provide results of preliminary work carried out using µSR, β-NMR or other techniques and the relationship with your proposed experiment.

D.    Beam Time Required

It is important that the beam time requested be justified. Please provide an itemized list of the measurements you propose to perform with time estimates in terms of number of 8-hour shifts required for each measurement. If you are unsure about the amount of time required for the proposed measurements please contact the Scientific Secretary (Iain McKenzie iain.mckenzie@triumf.ca), a CMMS facility scientist or the PIF & NIF facility coordinator (Mike Trinczek trinczek@triumf.ca)

E.     Data Analysis and Interpretation

It is important to clearly outline in the proposal how the scientific and physically-relevant information can be extracted from the collected data. Please provide information how this is planned and in particular about the model(s) that will be used for the data analysis and interpretation of results. Equations can be used. It is typically useful to provide details and for example do not just state the name of the analysis software that will be used.

F.     References

Please provide references (max 10) in the format:

[1] R. L. Garwin et al. Observations of the Failure of Conservation of Parity and Charge Conjugation in Meson Decays: The Magnetic Moment of the Free Muon. Phys. Rev. 105, 1415 (1957) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.105.1415  

References must contain the titles and an active DOI link to published papers. Papers published on https://arxiv.org/ are acceptable. References to unpublished work will not be considered.

Spokesperson Publications

In addition to the Detailed Statement, a single page list of selected publications by the spokesperson(s) should be included. The papers listed should be of relevance to the scientific nature of the proposal. This list should include (i) published papers which present results obtained from the given (and previously approved) beam time for the pertinent experiment and/or (ii) papers which pertain to investigations from other experiments of relevance to the proposal (including μSR or β-NMR), but not directly resulting from beam time allocation for the given proposal. The committee does not want to see a spokesperson’s career-long publication list attached to the proposal. A proposal that includes more than 1 page of publications from all the spokespersons will not be evaluated by the MMS-EEC.

PLEASE NOTE: There are new templates (MS Word and LaTeX) for the MMS-EEC Spokesperson Publications that can be downloaded below.   

A few further things to note:

• The MMS-EEC no longer accepts presentations. The spokesperson(s) must ensure the proposal contains all the relevant information for the committee’s deliberations as no additional material can be submitted.
• Proposers should check to see that the work that they propose has not already been submitted to TRIUMF and approved for another μSR or β-NMR group. The list of approved experiments can be found here: https://mis.triumf.ca/science/experiment/list.jsf  Under most circumstances, the MMS-EEC will not approve separate, independent groups to study the same materials under very similar experimental configurations or try to divide the study of a particular material among two (or more) μSR or β-NMR groups proposing relatively minor variations in experimental configurations (i.e., sample orientation, applied fields, etc.).

Once the submission is complete proceed to Step 5.

Step 5: Review and Submit Your Proposal

When your new proposal or progress report is complete you will need to go to the "Review for Submission" section and click "Submit Report to the EEC" (you are able to edit your submission until the deadline, you will need to click the "Retract submission" button, then edit your new proposal or progress report, but please remember to hit submit when you are ready to submit).

Templates (MS Word and LaTex)

The PDF documents that need to be submitted should be generated from the MS Word or LaTex templates below.

• Detailed Statement MSWord or LaTeX
• Spokesperson Publications List MSWord or LaTeX 

Communication Bewteen the MMS-EEC and Spokespersons

The committee can request that a Spokesperson be available during the meeting either in person, via internet conference or telephone to answer questions from committee members. In exceptional circumstances Spokespersons can request to talk to the committee during the meeting. A request should be sent to the Scientific Secretary prior to the meeting and will be considered by the committee Chairperson. The Spokesperson is not to bolster the scientific case but can provide information about organization and logistics that is pertinent to the proposal / progress report, but which could not be included in the written submission.

Rapid Access Proposals

Sometimes special circumstances may lead to a researcher’s request for beam time outside the normal proposal cycle. Rapid Access is available for proposals that are urgent and should only be used in extraordinary circumstances. Suitable reasons for a rapid access proposal are: “hot science” experiments; a new material that has been discovered; samples with short lifetimes; PhD student or post-doc needing beamtime before their project ends; etc. The threshold for awarding a Rapid Access proposal is very high.

Applications are made by emailing the DA-PSDiv (sciencediv@triumf.ca) and the Scientific Secretary of the MMS-EEC. These applications are independent of normal proposal submission dates.

The Rapid Access proposal will consist of a one-page summary of the scientific problem under investigation and a justification for why Rapid Access is warranted.

The proposal will be evaluated by the MMS-EEC Chairperson and one other committee member selected by the MMS-EEC Chairperson and the Scientific Secretary.

If the proposal is deemed appropriate for Rapid Access by the MMS-EEC, it will be scheduled as soon as feasible by the facility involved. If it is not considered to require rapid access it will be deferred until the next regular MMS-EEC meeting, when a full proposal will be required.ten evaluation of the Rapid Access proposal will be included in the subsequent MMSEEC report following the submission of the request.

More Information

For information regarding individual meetings, please visit the call for submissions webpage.