Standard beamtime access
As a user facility, ILL makes its instrumentation and expertise in neutron science and technology available to the scientific community. To apply for beamtime at the ILL, you are expected to submit a proposal to the ILL standard user programme. Proposals can be submitted all year, with deadlines in February and September, followed by a review process by expert panels organised by scientific domains. Results are communicated typically by the end of April
Next selection meetings (Subcommittees meetings): 3-4 Nov 2026
Proposals for standard beamtime access can be submitted all year, with deadlines in February and September.
The process in brief
For a proposal to be considered for standard beamtime access, at least two-thirds of the proposers must be affilliated to institutuions in ILL Associate or Scientific Member Countries (ILL proposers not taken into account in the calculation). Proposals not fulfilling this criterion are not automatically blocked - they will still be reviewed and may be granted beamtime through Director's Discretionary Time if they are truly world-class and address particularly relevant scientific topics.
- We strongly encourage proponents to reach out to ILL scientists before finalising and submitting a proposal. This can significantly enhance the clarity and feasibility of your project, refining the proposal and increasing its chances of success.
- Detailed proposal writing hints are HERE.
- For general queries, contact the User Office (user-office@ill.eu).
- Submit your proposal via the User Club.
- Detailed proposal submission guidelines are available HERE.
- In case of problems, you will receive full support from the User Club team (club@ill.eu).
- For other queries, contact the User Office (user-office@ill.eu).
- Please allow sufficient time for any unforeseen computing hitches.
- Proposals are reviewed by the Subcommittees of the Scientific Council approximately 8 weeks after the proposal submission deadline.
- Subcommittee members are specialists in the areas of each ILL College and evaluate the proposals for scientific merit.
- While scientific excellence is the primary proposal evaluation criterion, ILL management applies an adjustment for national balance. This typically affects 5-10% of the total allocated beamtime.
- Proposals that do not fulfill the two-thirds criterion are not automatically rejected but are generally not allocated beamtime. If they are rated as scientifically exceptionally, they may in some cases be granted Director's Discretionary Time.
Information & updates
New codes for sample environment equipment
Please check the list and identify the codes which best match your needs. A wider choice of equipment is now available for experiments performed close to ambient conditions.
40 Tesla / 2K cryomagnet available on IN22: a pulsed horizontal field cryomagnet
developed by LNCMI Toulouse and the ILL is available to ILL Users. Experiments with this magnet can be performed on IN22 in collaboration with LNCMI who provides and operates the power supply. If you wish to submit a proposal, please contact both Fabienne DUC (LNCMI, Toulouse) and Frédéric BOURDAROT (CEA, Grenoble) to prepare your proposal. The equipment can only be used with support from LNCMI, therefore a LNCMI person will be included in the proposal and experimental team. Please select the environment code 'Cryomagnet, Pulsed Horizontal Field < 40 T' if you want to use this option. More information here.
Deuterated lipids at the ILL
An extensive library of hydrogenous and deuterated lipids from natural extracts is available for neutron scattering experiments from the Deuterated lipids lab (L-Lab) at the ILL. Details and contacts in the L-Lab page.
Notes on the instrument suite
- We strongly encourage users to consider applying for CRG instruments (marked with *). You may also apply for CRG beam time through the CRG calls, provided you meet the eligibility criteria (e.g., affiliation with a CRG member country).
- D4 and IN1-Lagrange share the same beamtube, therefore they are operated for 50% of the total available beamtime. D3 and D9 operate for 50% of the time.
- ThALES will have less beam time (3 to 4 weeks, due to H5 reinforcement works)
The following instruments will be available for the forthcoming round:
- powder diffractometers: D1B*, D2B, D20, XtremeD*
- disordered materials diffractometer: D4
- polarised neutron diffractometer: D3
- diffuse scattering diffractometer: D007, depending on commissioning phase
- single-crystal diffractometers: D9, D10, D23*
- strain imaging diffractometer SALSA
- large scale structure diffractometers: D16, LADI, DALI
- small-angle scattering: D11, D22, D33, SAM*
- reflectometers: SuperADAM*, D17, FIGARO
- imaging instruments NeXT, MoTo, PoRTO
- three-axis spectrometers: IN8, IN12*, IN20, IN22*, ThALES
- vibrational spectrometer: IN1-Lagrange
- time-of-flight spectrometers: IN5, PANTHER, SHARPER*
- backscattering and spin-echo spectrometers: IN13*, IN15, IN16B, WASP
- fundamental-physics instruments: FIPPS, PF1B, PF2, PN1, SUPERSUN, S18*