Apply for Beamtime

The next submission for proposals for AP40 is open. The call for proposals for AP40 (October 2026 - March 2027) is open and proposals must be submitted by Wednesday 25th March 2026 at 17:00hrs UTC/GMT.

All use of beamtime is subject to Terms and Conditions for Peer Reviewed Facility User Access. 

Diamond runs call for proposal every six months in the spring and the autumn, aiming for peer review meetings in May and October. The call goes out to users via email and the deadline will be listed here for your attention.

The peer review meetings will review proposals submitted for the following allocation periods which are set as:

1st week of April - end of September

1st week of October - end of March

The available beamline access routes are listed in the below. Proposals should be submitted online in UAS.

All relevant access routes (standard, BAG and rapid access - see also menu on the left) at Diamond will be peer reviewed and accepted on their scientific merit.

Resubmissions: you must make it clear in your proposal if it is a resubmission. Describe what you have changed to fulfill the panel's comments on the previous proposal.

If the proposal is awarded beamtime, it is expected that experimental results will be published. If you do not wish to publish your results, please approach our Industrial Liaison Office who offer a wide range of services to meet your research needs.

Please refer to the relevant information that each of the beamlines have published for you to gauge whether your proposal would be possible under current circumstances. You will find relevant information under each instrument’s specific information here. During technical assessment it will be considered whether a proposal can be undertaken with or without users.

You must discuss your planned work with our instrument scientists and submit all proposals to UAS. In addition, please ensure that any outstanding reports are submitted and that your publications related to your previous beamtimes are in our database as the peer review panel will take these in to consideration during the review.

The Principal Investigator (PI) for a proposal must provide an ORCID ID in their registration details, and must have the status of Research Fellow or Academic Staff in UAS. Additionally all Diamond scientists including PDRAs and Support Scientists can apply as PIs providing they have the agreement of their PBS.

Please see the Access Routes table  for the current offering at Diamond. Please visit this page to find out more about the science capabilities of each instrument.

There may be a need for some proposals to include a request for time at ISIS as well as at Diamond. 

Diamond encourages science which exploits all of the facilities available on the Harwell Campus. Recognising that ISIS and Diamond are the two facilities with the largest overlapping user communities, we wish to make a simple access procedure which allows proposals to be reviewed once by a single review panel where both facilities are required for particular science.

Proposals which require access to Diamond and ISIS should be sent to the facility and review panel which has the most appropriate expertise to judge the quality of the proposal. The choice of facility should be made considering the following factors:

1. Is most of the access required on one instrument? Is so, then you should send the proposal to the facility where most access is needed.
2. Is the demand or competition for one of the instruments considerably greater than all others? If this is the case then the proposal should be sent to the panel where the competition is highest.

If after consideration of these questions there is uncertainty about which facility is most appropriate then please contact one of the following:

• Chris Nicklin; Physical Science Deputy Director, Diamond
• Philip King; Spectroscopy and Support Division Head, ISIS

For details on how to apply please also refer to our 'Preparing a Proposal in UAS' pages, under 'Instruments', as that guides users to people to consult in the application process dfor each instrument.