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Proposal guidance
Beamtime allocations are highly competitive and in high demand. Explore guidance, tips, and templates to help you write a strong and successful proposal.
Preparing your proposal
Before submitting a proposal, you are strongly encouraged to consult the relevant instrument scientist to confirm the most suitable instrument, required beamtime, and technical needs. For Rapid Access or Xpress Access proposals, this discussion is essential before submission.
As not all sample environment equipment is available on every instrument, please check your requirements with the Sample Environment Team or instrument scientists.
PhD students must list their academic supervisor as a Co-Investigator (Co-I) on the proposal.
Always talk to an instrument scientist to accurately assess the time needed and discuss experiment feasibility.
Sarah Hainsworth, University of Leicester
Proposal science case
Your science case is the core of your proposal and must be written in English. It should clearly state the aims, scientific context, and experimental details, explaining why neutrons or muons and ISIS instruments are required. Include any preliminary results, beamtime justification, and details of samples, conditions, and estimated measurement times.
If applicable, describe funding links, list recent ISIS-related publications, and indicate alternative instruments if suitable. For resubmissions, address previous panel feedback, and include an experimental report for continuation proposals.
The document must be in PDF format, no longer than two A4 pages, and use 11pt font or larger. Note that proposals are reduced to 70% of their original size, so ensure all text and figures remain legible.
The science case should include the following headings:
- Background and Context – Describe the scientific area, its importance, wider relevance, and how the proposal fits within your broader research programme and funding.
- Proposed Experiment – Outline the aims, expected outcomes, why neutrons or muons are essential, any modelling or simulations performed, and how data will be analysed.
- Previous Work – Summarise results from earlier beamtime or other characterisation methods, demonstrating sample suitability.
- Beamtime Justification – Explain your choice of instrument, requested time, and provide a clear breakdown (e.g. table or Gantt chart) of measurements, samples, and setup time.
One of the main reasons for not obtaining the support of the panel is a lack of clear statements on how the proposed work will result in significant advances.
Sue Kilcoyne, University of Salford
Policies and panels
View the terms of access, guidance on use of AI when writing proposals and our peer review access panels.
