User Access

COVID notification 2 July 2020

ANSTO is following all Government advice related to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria and will monitor the changing situation, updating its response as necessary.

ANSTO research infrastructure facilities in NSW and VIC remain open for users. 

The Victorian government has reinstated stay at home restrictions from 11:59pm on 1 July until 29 July for people residing in the following postcodes:

• 3012
• 3021
• 3032
• 3038
• 3042
• 3046
• 3047
• 3055
• 3060
• 3064

As per the 1 July NSW Government directive, users from these designated ‘hotspot’ zones in VIC will not be able to travel to ANSTO’s NSW sites.

Users from across Australia, including hotspot zones, may attend the ANSTO Australian Synchrotron facility in Victoria, subject to certain measures and home institution guidelines.

As part of ANSTO’s COVID-19 precautions to keep staff and users safe, we will be undertaking risk assessments on how and if experiments can be carried out for researchers who reside in any of the listed postcodes and who may need to access the Synchrotron site.

Users living in any of the postcodes listed above and intending to undertake experimental work at ANSTO’s Synchrotron facility are required to contact the User Office – Victoria (user.office.vic@ansto.gov.au) to declare this as soon as possible, well prior to coming onsite for the experiment.

COVID-19 Update - 11th June

The Australian Synchrotron recommenced user operations on 1 June, accommodating mail-in and remote experiments and those users able to travel to the facility. 

The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering will recommence user operations from 23 June.

All Users coming to ANSTO are required to undertake a COVID-19 Induction for the specific facility visited prior to site access. Local area inductions will also be provided outlining safe working practices (e.g. social distancing, area occupancy limits, personal protective equipment).

The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering is now accepting proposals for the 2021-1 round (Jan-Jun 2021).  ANSTO will advise as soon as possible when other facilities and platforms will be open for submission of proposals.

COVID-19 Update - 21st May

Dear Users,
 
Our 12 May communication to you advised of our plans to develop a staged, partial resumption of research infrastructure operations at Lucas Heights, Camperdown and Clayton.
 
As we prepare to recommence our user program, we will complete planned maintenance and infrastructure will be brought back to a state of operational readiness. We do not expect to resume operations at full capacity during this phase.
 
Our commitment is to:

• Address first those approved experiments/projects postponed from the 2020-1 round due to COVID-19 measures taking in to account student and post-doc projects facing critical timelines. We will contact the impacted users soon to discuss restarting these experiments; 
• Consider mail-in of samples, where possible, subject to agreement with Research Infrastructure contacts;
• Progressively allow users on site, from local/state, national and international institutions depending on Government and respective institutional travel advice, and ANSTO risk assessments;
• Award proposals under the 2020-2 (Lucas Heights) or 2020/2 (Clayton) rounds contingent on when user operations resume; and
• Reopen new proposal submissions once back-log is addressed and normal operations re-established.
• ANSTO VIC (Australian Synchrotron) will recommence regular user operations from June, following the principles outlined above.  As Government restrictions ease, ANSTO NSW will assess the risk of resuming a reduced level of user program that will permit the presence of users on site.

 
Questions on this communication can be directed to respective User Office sites user.office.nsw@ansto.gov.au or user.office.vic@ansto.gov.au for the capabilities required.