For any electronic submission you may want to do at the ESRF (proposal, report, A-form, sample sheet), your personnel ESRF account is available at: User Portal (SMIS)

Proposals for CRG beamlines


The CRG beamlines have their proper review committees and they give 33% of their user mode to ESRF proposals. In the ESRF proposal submission application one can chose either to submit a standard ESRF proposal or to submit to the CRG committe. In order to submit directly to the CRG committee, next to the CRG button you can list all existing CRG beamlines from which you select the one you want to submit your proposal to. You will directly arrive on the proposal form of the chosen beamline. If you can read on top of the form "Application for Beam Time at ESRF" you are on the site for official ESRF Proposal submission. For a CRG Proposal you can always verify at the title of the form if you are at the right place since you should find there the chosen beamline's name.

Sample Sheet

Macromolecular crystallography proposals must be completed with a Sample Sheet, which will appear in your Tasks list once you have submitted a proposal for such an experiment. The sample sheet (formerly Protein Crystallogrphy Safety Form) provides the ESRF safety group with complete information by giving details on each sample included in the new application. Once you have got beamtime you will have to select your sample per session on the A-form. However either the main proposer or the co-proposer will be able to add new sample sheets at any time to an already existing proposal. These have to be submitted the latest one week before any experimental session.

On the sample sheet you have to indicate the category of risk of the sample with a choice between 1 and 2. 1 means no risk neither for the user nor for the environment. 2 means a risk for the user but no risk for the environment. Under certain conditions samples of category 2 are accepted at the ESRF. Samples of the existing category 3 or 4 are refused at the ESRF.

Experimental Sessions / A-form

The accepted proposals get beamtime and are informed via the CRG Liaison office of the time when the experimental session will take place. In return, the main proposer is supposed to submit the A-form with information on all participants of the experiment and their practical needs like guesthouse bookings and canteen cards. For macromolecular crystallography experiments, the submission of the sample sheet with the selected or added sample for this special session is expected.

Publication & Experiment Reports

For each publication ensure that you mention the beamline on which you obtained data, acknowledge assistance from the CRG beamline staff and remember to send a reprint for the joint ESRF/ILL library. Thus you will be able to find corresponding details under each beamline - "publications".

In further requests for beamtime, please indicate the number(s) of the report(s) submitted on your previous measurements, and whether or not your previous work supports your new proposal.