Service level for user support

Service Levels for User Support under 'Free At The Point of Access' Arrangements at the Science and Technology Facilities Council Large Scale Research Facilities: ISIS, SRS and CLF

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SUMMARY 

1. The level of support for those researchers who successfully gain access to the ISIS, SRS and CLF facilities via the Science and Technology Facilities Council peer review Facility Access Mechanism is outlined below.

   SUPPORT FOR USERS

   Scientific and Technical

2. All eligible UK HEI users (see Facility Access Mechanism, paragraph 5) will receive an appropriate level of scientific and technical support whilst using the Council's facilities.

   Travel and Accommodation

3. Eligible UK HEI users (including Research Council Institute staff) will be entitled to apply for travel and accommodation support from the Council.
   
   
4. Up to four registered members of a team will be eligible for support. Users are entitled to claim travel and accommodation for the duration of their experiment plus up to an additional two days for preparation and data analysis. Claims in excess of these limits will be at the discretion of the Facility Director.
   
   
5. Travel rates for users are the same across all the facilities. Accommodation and meals will also be paid for by the local facility administration.
   
   
6. International users, excluding those accessing facilities via EU trans-national access arrangements or with existing agreements in place, are not eligible to apply for travel and accommodation costs from the Council. This also applies to any user accessing the facility on a contractual basis such as industrial customers.

   Consumables

7. A new consumables baseline funding level of up to £1k per proposal has been introduced across all facilities. It is expected that this will be sufficient for the majority of proposals. However, in those cases where higher levels of consumables are required, up to a ceiling of £3k, an itemised bid will be required for approval by the Facility Director.
   
   
8. Those users of the facilities who have Research Council major research grant support, or are funded via Research Council institutes, are not eligible to apply for minor consumable funding from the Council for experiments in pursuit of the research programme concerned.
   
   
9. Medical Research Council Institute employees are not be eligible to apply for minor consumable funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. This represents no change from current procedures at the facilities.
   
   
10. International users (excluding EU facility users and those with arrangements in place) and other contractual users such as industrial users, are not be eligible to apply to the Council for minor consumable funding - see also paragraph 4 above.

Annex 1

Levels of Support for Researchers Under the "Free At The Point of Access" Arrangements for the Science and Technology Facilities Council Large Scale Research Facilities:

¹ All facilities provide comprehensive Type 1 data acquisition facilities (data collection and some initial data processing capability) and JANET networking. However, the level of Type 2 (specific data analysis capability) support is variable both across facilities and within facilities themselves. Users should discuss their requirements, ahead of submission, with the appropriate facility instrument scientist.