Argonne National Laboratory has partnered with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory to develop a common platform for the submission and management of user scientific proposals.  

The new Universal Proposal System (UPS) will streamline the scientific proposal process for users of the Advanced Photon Source, the National Synchrotron Light Source II, and the Linac Coherent Light Source. APS anticipates fully switching to the UPS as the facility's proposal submission system sometime later in 2023. 

When user operations for the current APS storage ring end in April 2023, all current active APS proposals* in the Beam Time Access System (the current APS proposal platform) will be expired as the APS moves into the dark period.  

*Note that active proposals being submitted for macromolecular crystallography collaborative access to the Diamond Light Source (UK) and SSRL will not expire. (See https://aps.anl.gov/Users-Information/About-Proposals/Apply-for-Time for further information regarding these dark time collaborations.) 

The APS’ Beam Time Access System will be phasing out (schedule to be announced). We plan to maintain the system as 'read-only' for a period of time to allow user access to past proposals. Details will be shared as they become available. 

If you have any questions regarding these topics, please contact the Beam Time Access System administrator, Jacki Flood, at apsproposals@anl.gov. We look forward to sharing more information regarding the new Universal Proposal System with you soon!