Planning Experiments

This page contains resources for members of the scientific research community who are seeking to plan an experiment at TRIUMF, review upcoming beam schedules, and access additional resources related to planning experiments.

TRIUMF has four Experiments Evaluation Committees (EECs) which convene as indicated below:

• Life Sciences Projects Evaluation Committee (LSPEC) meets once a year
• Nuclear Physics Experiments Evaluation Committee (NP-EEC) meets twice a year in June and January (usually)
• Molecular & Materials Science Experiments Evaluation Committee (MMS-EEC) meets twice a year in June and January (usually)
• Particle Physics Experiments Evaluation Committee (PP-EEC) meets once a year in March/April (usually)

The purpose of these committees is to review new research proposals which are presented at the meetings and advise TRIUMF’s management on the feasibility of research proposals and the allocation of beam time in appropriate priority sequence. They also review the progress of ongoing experiments. Committee members are comprised of members from both national and international scientific communities, and are selected based on their expertise in various areas, including:

• nuclear and particle physics
• nuclear astrophysics
• muon spin rotation and condensed matter physics
• chemistry
• life sciences
• nuclear medicine

Two months prior to each scheduled meeting, TRIUMF issues a call for submissions, with a deadline set for submission, to all TRIUMF users representing national and international scientists.

Each spokesperson must submit a proposal containing:

• a concise summary of the scientific problem under investigation, with appropriate literature references
• clear justification for the proposed experiment
• the names of collaborators
• support required from TRIUMF
• a description of the experimental techniques to be used, naming the facility required
• an analysis of beam time requirements including, for example, a prioritized list of samples
• safety considerations
• an indication of start-up dates for preparation and start of data acquisition

Each proposal is then assigned for a detailed review to two committee members with relevant expertise and the proposals are evaluated solely on their scientific merit.

All accepted proposals and progress reports are submitted to the relevant committee members for their review. The committee members provide their recommendations in the form of a written report which is distributed as instructed by the committee’s Ex-Officio or Secretary. 

Other resources:

• The list of experiments are available online at the TRIUMF Experiments Database.

• TSOP-07 Experiment Management Physical Sciences Division
  (requires TRIDENT login)

• TSOP-14 Approval of Experiments for the Life Sciences Division 
  requires TRIDENT login)

• Email Announcements: Sign up for the experimental-program and/or mms-experimental-program listserves; these listserves are for all announcements regarding the experimental program at TRIUMF, i.e. for meetings of the Experiment Evaluation Committee reviews (EEC), beam requests, beam schedules, etc