Office of Science (Department of Energy) User Facilities

The Office of Science national scientific user facilities provide researchers with the most advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. In Fiscal Year 2012 over 29,000 researchers from academia, industry, and government laboratories, spanning all fifty states and the District of Columbia, utilized these unique facilities to perform new scientific research. A user facility is a federally sponsored research facility available for external use to advance scientific or technical knowledge under the following conditions: - The facility is open to all interested potential users without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation. - Allocation of facility resources is determined by merit review of the proposed work. - User fees are not charged for non-proprietary work if the user intends to publish the research results in the open literature. Full cost recovery is required for proprietary work. - The facility provides resources sufficient for users to conduct work safely and efficiently. - The facility supports a formal user organization to represent the users and facilitate sharing of information, forming collaborations, and organizing research efforts among users. - The facility capability does not compete with an available private sector capability.