User Agreements

The United States Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) requires that a User Agreement be executed for every accepted proposal at its National User Facilities, such as the NSRCs.  These agreements stipulate the terms and conditions under which work may be conducted at the NSRCs.  If you are not an employee of a DOE laboratory, a user agreement must be signed by your home institution as a prerequisite for research work to be done at the NSRCs. Users are not permitted to perform research work until a User Agreement with that user’s home institution is established. Important issues, such as intellectual property and liability, are addressed within the User Agreement.

User Agreements are available in 5-year umbrella versions that, once executed by all parties, apply to the current and all future NSRC user proposals submitted from the signatory institutions within that 5-year period.  The Agreement must be signed by a person from the user’s institution who is legally authorized to enter into contractual obligations for the user’s institution. Note: The user himself/herself is generally NOT authorized to make these contractual obligations. If users from multiple institutions are participating in one user project, User Agreements are required from each institution before work can begin at an NSRC. Any change in the terms and conditions requested by the user institution must be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Please refer to the Center most suited to your proposal for more details on the user agreements.