Access Models

In accordance with Office of Science policies, each user facility manages the access process, which must involve peer review of a submitted proposal. Our user facilities generally follow one of two access models:

Individual Proposal Access Model

Under this model, individual investigators or small groups submit a proposal directly to the user facility, typically in response to an open call for proposals.  The facility allocates access based on the outcome of peer review of eligible proposals. It is not unusual for a facility to schedule blocks of approved projects based on a sequence of open calls for proposals over the course of the year.

Collaboration Proposal Access Model

Under this model, a formal self-organized collaboration of researchers submits a proposal to the user facility. The facility subjects the proposals to peer review.

This model is typically used at user facilities that run a large experiment from which many scientists share the same data. In these cases a large collaboration may involve dozens or even hundreds of researchers from a number of different institutions who work together to propose experiments.