2025 CALL FOR PROPOSALS & LETTERS OF INTENT

CALL FOR PROPOSALS & LETTERS OF INTENT

The Institute for Rare Isotope Science (IRIS) invites proposals for beam time for domestic Korea users. Proposals accepted should be able to run in RAON beam time periods that will be scheduled in 2025 and 2026. These are expected to be three(3) months from September to November in 2025 and five(5) months in 2026. 

The stable beams available in 2025 will be Ne-20 and Ar-40 accelerated by the superconducting linac SCL3 at energies of ~18 MeV/u or less with an intensity of 10^5 ~ 10^10 pps. Proton beams of 40 and 70 MeV will be provided by the cyclotron with a beam power of up to 10 kW. Reaccelerated RIB of Na-25 will be available at ~18 MeV/u or less with an intensity of ~10^5 pps.  

In 2026, more stable beam options will be available such as Ne-22 and other gas ions. Those users wishing to use specific stable beams are encouraged to submit a Letter of Intent (see below). Also, in 2026, rare isotope beams of Na-21 and Na-24 are planned to be provided with the intensities of around 10^5 pps with energies of roughly 18 MeV/u or less. In 2026 it may also be possible to provide RIBs of Cs-130, Cs-130m, Cs-134m, Cs-135m, Cs-136, Ba-133m, Ba-135m, with intensities of about 10^3 to 10^6 pps at energies similar to those of Na beams. (Tentative intensity estimates are ~10^3 for Cs-130, Cs-130m, & Ba-135m, ~10^4 for Cs-136, ~10^5 for Cs-135m, and ~10^6 for Cs-134m & Ba-133m.) The details of the Cs and Ba RIB conditions will need to be confirmed through testing in 2025 after which more reliable information will be available and requests for such beams should be expressed at this stage as a Letter of Intent.

The KoBRA, NDPS, CLaSsy (formerly known as CLS), and MRTOF-MS setups will be available for experiments. Regarding the NDPS, the time structure for neutron TOF is still under development. However, experiments using the NDPS can be proposed either as a full proposal or an LOI for 2025 and/or 2026. Users wishing to use these devices are encouraged to consult with IRIS on technical matters before submitting proposals or LOIs. Inquiries can be sent via email to user_support@ibs.re.kr.

Proposals must be submitted by Feb. 20, 2025 to allow for scientific and technical reviews of the proposals prior to the PAC meeting, which will take place in May 2025. 

Beam time will be provided for non-proprietary experiments based on the scientific merits through the review of proposals by the PAC. There will be no beam time charge for non-proprietary experiments as long as the results from these experiments are expected to be published. 

Summary of Beams

※ The specifications for RIBs produced via ISOL in 2026 are subject to change based on ongoing development progress.

Important dates 

• January 9, 2025: Call for proposals and/or LOI
• February 20, 2025: Deadline for submission of proposals and/or LOI
• Mid-May, 2025: PAC Meeting
• End of May, 2025: Notification of approved experiments 
• September ~ November, 2025: Experiments using the SCL3 beams
• The scheduling of beam time with protons or low-energy ISOL RIB (to CLaSsy and MRTOF-MS) will be made in consultation with the IRIS/RAON team and fixed individually.

The contact spokesperson for each proposal must register on the IBS indico page (https://indico.ibs.re.kr/e/user) and fill in the submission form. The content of the proposal should not exceed 10 pages including the cover page, references, tables and figures. A font size of 12 point (Times or Calibri font) must be used for the text.  Proposals will be kept confidential but will be made available to PAC members and the IRIS staff for technical and safety reviews. 

The proposals are requested to include:

1. Abstract 
2. Scientific motivation
3. Goals of the proposed experiment
4. Experimental details
5. Estimation of beam time requested
6. Experimental parameters such as beam requirements, targets and detectors
7. Summary
8. References 

Safety measures 

The Safety Management Office of the IRIS will review all proposals for safety issues. 

Letters of Intent 

Letters of Intent (LOI) may be submitted.  The objective of an LOI is to provide IRIS with information on new beams and related RAON technical requirements that need to be developed and/or improved for future experiments. LOI will not be graded by the PAC.  Feedback will be provided to the users and the PAC will provide the IRIS team with some guidance on the prioritisation of any new developments needed for experimental programmes outlined in the LOIs. 

LOI should only outline the envisaged experiments/experimental programme – detailed descriptions are not required of the setups and measurements. The LOI should concentrate on the physics goals and their importance.  The LOI should detail the new beams and/or RAON requirements that need to be developed. 

An LOI does not constitute a proposal, and users must submit to a future PAC, if positive feedback is received from the PAC, a fully-fledged proposal.

The LOI should follow the same overall structure and format (see above) as a proposal.  Item 4 in an LOI should be very brief and item 5 is not applicable. 

LOIs are limited to a maximum of 5 pages and must also employ 12 point font size.

Contact 

Please contact the user support office, user_support@ibs.re.kr for any inquiries.