Becoming a NeXUS User
The NeXUS Facility is an open-access user facility, available at no cost to academic users thanks to support from the National Science Foundation. Time in the lab is awarded through a peer-evaluated process. This page describes the process to apply to become a user of the NeXUS Facility.
Eligibility Criteria
The NeXUS facility welcomes proposals from the whole scientific community. Researchers from inside or outside of the United States are welcome to submit proposals.
A proposal for facility time must be submitted by the Team Lead for the proposed project. The Team Lead is responsible for:
- Overseeing the planning, preparation, and administration of the project.
- Ensuring all resources committed to in the proposal are provided to support the project.
- Working with NeXUS staff to execute the project, mitigate risks that arise, and resolve any project issues that arise.
- Reporting project outcomes to NeXUS.
User projects are assumed to be for fundamental research purposes, and NeXUS expects that results will be disclosed in user publications. However, users can propose and conduct non-fundamental projects that collect proprietary or commercial data. The Team Lead must inform NeXUS prior to proposal submission if they are proposing a non-fundamental project, and NeXUS reserves the right to charge usage fees for these projects.
Proposal Selection Process
Rights and Responsibilities
The NeXUS User Handbook provides information, policies, and procedures relevant to NeXUS Users. All Users must agree to abide by this handbook to use the NeXUS Facility. Key points for new Users to be aware of are:
User Rights
- NeXUS facility time and support are awarded at no cost for users collecting data for fundamental research with an intent to publish.
- Any Research Data collected during a User Experiment are the property of the Users conducting the experiment.
User Responsibilities
- By using the NeXUS facility or equipment, each User agrees to use them in a safe and responsible manner as specified by NeXUS Staff, NeXUS policies, and The Ohio State University policies.
- Any publication or presentation that results from a NeXUS User experiment shall acknowledge the use of the NeXUS Facility.
- NeXUS researchers who have contributed significantly to experiment design, data acquisition, and/or interpretation of the data should be invited to be co-authors on publications. Users and Staff should discuss authorship as early as possible during the experiment planning to avoid later conflicts.
NeXUS Rights
- NeXUS Staff have sole responsibility and discretion for permitting and scheduling usage of NeXUS facilities and equipment.
- The primary basis for awarding facility time is the external review of user proposals.
NeXUS Responsibilities
- NeXUS Staff will work to ensure that the NeXUS Facility is operated safely, responsibly, and effectively so that Users can complete their planned experiments.
- A NeXUS “link scientist” will work with each Team Lead to coordinate the planning and execution of their experiment.