The Principal Investigator or Alternate Contacts need to complete the Session Investigators form in UAS. In order to do this firstly ensure that:
Further information can be found here.
Please follow the link to our Health and Safety video and test. This must be completed before you can be added as a Session Investigator to come to Diamond.
There are no facilities at Diamond for you to complete this test on site.
Once you have registered in the UAS and completed your safety training, your PI or AC can attach you to a session. You will automatically receive a Fed ID and Password. This will supersede your email log-in and password, which should no longer be used.
All samples and equipment your bring to Diamond must be declared on the ERA and this must be validated before you come to site.
All electrical equipment brought to Diamond must carry a valid PAT testing sticker.
Please note - Diamond is not able to enter into material transfer agreements as a recipient for any materials or samples which a user will be bringing to Diamond. Users are responsible for ensuring they have the correct licences, approvals, and materials transfers in place that may be required prior to conducting research at Diamond and for providing copies of same to Diamond.
Diamond will cover the cost of shipping up to two dewars of your samples (per 8 hour shift) to beamlines and eBIC microscopes if your establishment is in the UK or EU. We shall not be liable in any way for any loss, damage or delay arising out of the shipping of samples and it shall be your responsibility to ensure you have adequate insurance to cover these (or any other) eventualities.
When sending your samples in advance please consider that due to the UK no longer being in the EU the administration and management of shipping is taking longer.
Due to customs clearance requirements shipments can be held up for several days, you are advised to prepare well in advance liaising with your PBS.
Please follow the guidance given in the Sample Shipment section
You can bring radioactive samples to site, subject to them being declared on a validated ERA. Please see the section on Safety Requirements for full details.
Diamond continues to welcome users from anywhere in the world to submit proposals and participate in experiments. Further information is available on our Before you arrive information pages.
Users are expected to make their own travel arrangements. Further information is available in our Travel details.
Please click here for more infomation regarding our User claims procedure
You will need your access card to gain acess to the Diamond site and Buildings. Please wear your access pass at all times whilst on site.
Please see our policy and procedure on Travel, Subsistence and Accommodation for full information.
Breakfast is provided with all accommodation bookings made by Diamond.
Tea, coffee, drinking water, milk and sugar are available in all the Diamond kitchens with no charge.
Vending machines are provided in the kitchens in zones 3, 7 and 11.
While the Diamond machine is running, meals can be obtained in the:
Please note, while the Diamond machine is not running R22 closes at 16:00 on Friday and reopens at 07:30 on Monday.
If you have special dietary needs, please approach the restaurant directly to make a request. You can do this by emailing cateringral@stfc.ac.uk
Once the Investigators form is submitted by your PI or AC in UAS the User Office will make the accommodation bookings you have requested.
Where the Ridgeway House guest house is not available, the User Office will book alternative local accommodation. You will be sent confirmation of your session arrangements by email from the UAS.
Check in for Ridgeway House is from 14:00. If you no longer require your room, please inform the User Office and the hotel by 12 noon the day before you are due to arrive. You/your institute may be charged if you fail to do so.
Once the session has been booked, all session investigators will receive an email presenting the booked arrangements. You are strongly recommended to read this email and the linked information. The email will specify where you are staying and full information on accommodation and taxi bookings. In addition it contains a link to the session in UAS.
If you no longer require your room, please inform the User Office and the Hotel as soon as possible. Otherwise, you/your institute will be charged if you fail to do so.
Any costs incurred due to failure to read the email and linked information will not be reimbursed by the User Office.
Once a session has been booked you are no longer able to make changes to the team.
Should it become necessary to change the personnel arrangements for a session, you must inform the user office of these changes giving at least 24 hours’ notice. Please note; changes of this nature, should only be made in exceptional circumstances and can only be made during the opening hours of the User Office.
The User Office will assess late change requests on a case by case basis and approval of such changes will be at the User Office's discretion.
If an allocated session becomes unavailable to the user due to the malfunction of the Diamond soure or beamline, Diamond cannot guarantee that such lost time will be reallocated.
Action will be taken to mitigate against the consequences of the lost beamtime.
Full details can be found in the Guidelines for Cancelled Beamtime document.
You can identify the Local Contact for your session at Diamond in UAS.
The Local Contact is the scientist at Diamond who will train you and help you with your experiment here.
You can find details to contact your Local Contact by phone or email from within the appropriate instrument on the Diamond website.
Working alone at Diamond is strongly discouraged, particularly where the experiment is complex or more hazardous. However, in some circumstances lone working is necessary.
Please inform the EHCs (ext. 8787) who can ensure they make regular safety checks. If you are lone working and leave Diamond, please notify the EHCs to let them know there is no longer a need for these checks.
Diamond has a team of Experimental Hall Coordinators (EHCs) who provide a 24 hour service, ensuring the smooth running of the Synchrotron Building.
If you have any problems out-of-hours the EHC on duty will be able to contact the on-call scientist to support you. Often it is the EHCs who will support you with requests for products such as gases and liquid nitrogen.
The EHCs are also trained first aiders.
If you are unsure what to do, and are not able to contact your Local Contact, the EHC is a good person to ask for advice. They are available on extension 8787 from any Diamond phone.
If you require any infomation on Health and Safety at Diamond please click here
Diamond reviews all accidents and near-misses regularly to improve our processes. Please ask your Local Contact or an EHC (ext. 8787) for an Incident Report Form which should be completed and given to the Local Contact or EHC who will pass it to the Diamond SHE team.
Should you observe any unsafe condition or action, please report the situation to your Local Contact/Experimental Hall Coordinator as soon as possible.
If you discover a fire, please sound the alarm by activating the nearest break glass.
The fire alarm is a ringing bell, followed by a recorded message that will inform you to evacuate the building. Please leave the building by the nearest exit and go to the muster point. If you are in the synchrotron building this is at zone 1, underneath the link bridge. If you are in Diamond House this is in the car park at the front of the building.
If you require first aid, please see the list displayed in each beamline to identify a first aider who can provide assistance.
If you are unsure, please contact the experimental hall coordinators on ext. 8787.
All proposals require a report once the session scheduled in that proposal are complete. The Principal Investigator and Alternate Contacts will be prompted to do this in UAS.
We review all user feedback regularly at Diamond. After each session the Principal Investigator, Alternate Contact and Team Leader will be prompted to provide Diamond with feedback through UAS.
If you want to send feedback on any non-sessuion related matter you can also contact the User office, or for any issue, including potentially confidential matters, please see here to find your relevant Diamond User Committee (DUC) representative.
User have access to the Severn Road car park that lies behind Diamond. There are a number of EV car charging points here.
Please refer to this map for guidance on how to get to the Servern Road car park and the turnstile access points for accessing Diamond from it.
You shall:
See the Diamond Health and Safety rules here
Please include any Diamond employees as authors in your publication if they have made a significant contribution to the published research.
In addition, please acknowledge Diamond with the statement:
"We thank Diamond Light Source for access to beamline XXX (proposal number) that contributed to the results presented here."
All session investigators who are eligible for finanacial support will receive an email from the online claims system. Please see the claims section of this page for full details of how to claim.
Please note: all claims must be recieved within 3 months of the session end date.
The PI or AC can add this person to the session retrospectively, providing they are registered. If the person is newly registered for this purpose, the PI/AC/PBS should also request via email to the User Office that the user gets sent a Fed ID as this will not happen automatically due to the session being historic.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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