The Program Advisory Committee, chaired this time by Prof Rob Burford (UNSW and AINSE), has met over the last two days to assess the scientific merit of beam-time and deuteration proposals submitted for time between January and June 2016.
184 cold- and thermal-neutron experiments (along with proposals to the National Deuteration Facility) were recommended for approval, with beam time allocations as follows: 81 days on ECHIDNA, 80 on WOMBAT, 98 on KOALA, 71 on KOWARI, 81 on TAIPAN, 85 on PLATYPUS, 90 on QUOKKA, 78 on DINGO, 91 on PELICAN, 62 on KOOKABURRA, and 22 on BILBY (subject to receiving its operating licence from ARPANSA). 44 days of non-Taiwan beam time on SIKA were awarded. The variation is primarily due to time set aside for proprietary work, pre-approved programs of research from previous proposal rounds and time set aside for the mail-in service on ECHIDNA.
This is the last meeting for both Rob Burford and Alice Vrielink, and we thank them both for their service on this committee over the years. A number of other regular committee members were unable to attend this time, and we thank Chris Ling, Cameron Kepert and Tim Wess for standing in for the absentees.