Proposals for CFI-IF 2025

We believe that understanding the scientific expectations and vision of researchers is a critical part in engaging and collaborating with the user community that will help the CLS thrive as a research facility.

With new funding opportunities on the horizon (see recently advertised timelines for upcoming Innovation Fund (IF) competitions), the CLS is more than ever looking forward to the development of new scientific capabilities and instrumentation across all our beamlines and ancillary facilities. To this end, the CLS is calling for the submission of new proposals for the upcoming Innovation Fund competition (CFI-IF 2025). Applicants from eligible institutions will be required to submit Notice of Intents (NOIs) initially, and full project proposals at a later stage. Details and deadlines of the submission process for NOIs are provided in the next section.

Note: CLS will keep applications submitted for the CFI-IF 2025 competition on record and review them for other new funding opportunities as they arise. We therefore highly encourage all applicants to submit NOIs to the CLS (upgrades@lightsource.ca) for the CFI-IF 2025 competition even if past proposals have been unsuccessful and/or the internal deadlines for the CFI-IF application at their respective institutions have passed.

Submission Process

By January 15th, 2024, applicants who are interested to be either a Team Leader or a participant in projects led by other institutions, will complete and submit an NOI form to the CLS. Upon receipt of the completed NOI form, an internal CLS panel will review the project and, if necessary, a meeting to discuss your proposal will be arranged. Results of this internal review will be announced by February 05, 2024.

Please submit NOI forms (max 3-4 pages) to upgrades@lightsource.ca.

upgrades@lightsource.ca   CLS NOI Form for CFI-IF 2025

CLS-Specific Assessment Criteria

Proposals will be assessed as follows:

  • Technical feasibility of the infrastructure at the CLS premises
  • Does the proposal align with the scientific vision and strategic plan of the CLS?
  • Will the infrastructure be competitive with similar infrastructure on this continent (if any) and/or build on the strengths of CLS?
  • Will the infrastructure facilitate techniques that are complementary to synchrotron-based techniques and can it be used offline (not requiring X-ray beam)?
  • Is there likely to be a significant Canadian user community for the infrastructure?

Proposals will be ranked based on the above criteria and in order of scientific merit before proceeding to the next stage. Please also note that priority will be given to proposals satisfying any of the following criteria:

  • Techniques that are not currently available at the CLS
  • Techniques that will be as competitive at a 3rd generation light source as at a 4th generation light source
  • Infrastructures consisting of offline instruments and that are complementary to synchrotron-based techniques
  • Science that will be based on already well-established techniques at the CLS and help broaden/retain our user community

On the other hand:

  • Proposals for the construction of a new insertion device (ID) beamline will not be considered (Proposals for the construction of a new bending magnet beamline may be considered in the future for a different funding competition)
  • Proposals for new infrastructures at any beamline must be supported by both the Beamteam Leader and the Beamline Responsible of that beamline

Questions?

For more information and any enquiries, please contact us at upgrades@lightsource.ca.