Success Rates

As of March 2012, there have been 9 proposal rounds at OPAL. On average, between 43% and 78% of regular proposals get beam time, and ~25% of program proposals have received time in the last seven rounds. Regarding beam days allocated, we have been able to award between 39% and 67% of the number of days requested, on average. The detailed success rates, in terms of number of proposals and number of days, are listed in the tables below as a function of instrument and proposal round. Once an instrument is running well, we typically award between 80 and 100 beam days to the general user program in each 6-month proposal round.

Proposal Success Rate (as a proportion of proposals submitted)

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	May 2007	Nov 2008	May 2009	Nov 2009	May 2010	Nov 2010	May 2011	Sept 2011	Mar 2012
ECHIDNA	63%	84%	88%	76%	86%	61%	73%	57%	47%
WOMBAT	68%	80%	77%	54%	70%	69%	57%	74%	40%
KOALA	-	83%	91%	84%	85%	67%	71%	69%	79%
KOWARI	-	64%	100%	63%	82%	100%	46%	67%	52%
PLATYPUS	-	41%	81%	withdrawn	47%	19%	withdrawn	26%	N/A*
QUOKKA	-	-	27%	59%	61%	24%	withdrawn	withdrawn	N/A*
TAIPAN	-	-	100%	64%	50%	57%	43%	50%	56%
Programs	-	-	15%	33%	29%	33%	0%	33%	20%
Bio-Deuteration	-	-	-	-	-	33%	57%	33%	40%
Chemical-Deuteration	-	-	-	-	-	50%	63%	25%	40%

* pending return to service of OPAL's cold neutron source

Proposal Success Rate (as a proportion of beam days requested)

Round	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Nov 2008	May 2009	Nov 2009	May 2010	Nov 2010	May 2011	Sept 2011	Mar 2012
ECHIDNA	72%	90%	76%	68%	59%	56%	62%	38%
WOMBAT	61%	73%	45%	59%	55%	41%	62%	37%
KOALA	68%	90%	88%	78%	58%	48%	54%	53%
KOWARI	33%	72%	67%	53%	103%	43%	59%	43%
PLATYPUS	30%	78%	withdrawn	40%	24%	withdrawn	32%	N/A*
QUOKKA	-	24%	62%	53%	17%	withdrawn	withdrawn	N/A*
TAIPAN	-	100%	77%	62%	75%	32%	46%	55%

* pending return to service of OPAL's cold neutron source