Become researcher SOLEIL

The experimentations division consists of researchers, engineers, technicians and administrative personnel responsible for the definition, construction and operation of SOLEIL's beamlines and experimental program. The organization chart of the division, in the starting phase (2002-2005) and then in the operation phase (in 2006), is presented in annex I.
The organization of SOLEIL's scientific life strives to fulfil two series of related and complementary objectives:

• to build beamlines at top scientific and technical levels, to develop the possibilities offered by these lines to enable the user community to be ranked first in international competition, to ensure the quality of reception of outside users and the adequacy between their needs and the possibilities offered.
• to develop top-level international scientific research activity, which is the only way that SOLEIL can be an attractive laboratory at the cutting edge of research around synchrotron radiation.

The scientific sections, the outline of which must reflect the themes developed at SOLEIL, and the "instrumentation and support to experimentations" unit both play a key role in ensuring the coherence of the scientific program. From an operational point of view, division organization relies on the distribution between beamlines and support laboratories.

SOLEIL's scientific management is ensured jointly by a "Science of Matter" director and a "Life Science" director appointed for five years. The scientific management team consists of scientific directors and, in the starting phase, two deputies, in addition to those in charge of the thematic sections in the operation phase. This team runs the scientific life of the laboratory. It stimulates high-level research activity, promotes the emergence of new orientations, manages relations between SOLEIL and the user laboratories.

The scientific directors are responsible for "institutional" scientific relations (both national and international). They attend the meetings of SOLEIL's Board and Scientific Advisory Committee and prepare jointly the scientific documents submitted to these committees. Within SOLEIL, they organize the scientific life of the laboratory through their responsibility for the experimentations division. Within the management meetings, they participate in the general management of the laboratory and the coordination of relations between the Experimentations division and other divisions.

The scientific secretariat ensures the following functions:

• release and archival storage of documents
• preparation of Scientific Advisory Committee meetings
• outline and update of the lines and experimentations
• publication of the annual report
• organization of thematic workshops and debates
• documentation

and, in due time:

• relations with users
• organization of the program committees and beamline assessment committees

In the starting phase, each director is in regular contact with two or three outside counsellors, who will contribute to ensuring strong bonds with the synchrotron radiation scientific community users. They are appointed by the Managing Director (upon recommendation from the CNRS and CEA). They are consulted on the content of the APS (preliminary projects) and recruiting relevant to their area of competence.
Both directors rely on two deputies in order to ensure representation of most scientific areas of competence present at SOLEIL within the management team. The deputies are also chosen according to their skills in the field of conditionnement and use of synchrotron radiation. They are appointed by management upon recommendation from the scientific directors. They participate in the preparation of and attend the Scientific Advisory Committee meetings. They are consulted on recruiting the division personnel, within the instrumentation unit and for skills falling within their area of competence.

The scientific management team, headed by the scientific directors, examines the overall scientific program to make sure it has the proper impetus, coordination and follow-up. Currently, this involves setting up the APS and instrumental support of the lines, and preparation of their budgets. In the construction phase, this concerns APD (detailed design projects) follow-up, construction of the beamlines and experimentations, coordination of technical support participation, in particular follow-up on the organization of the work in each project, consultation with the Sources division, etc.

During the setting up phase of the APS and then APD of the beamlines, for the sake of efficacy and clarity, a main correspondent from SOLEIL's scientific management team is designated for each line project (see annex II).

In the starting phase of the project, discussions are carried out leading to proposals concerning among other things:

• the organization of research as such
• partnership agreements (rights and duties of partner researchers, etc.), partnerships with laboratories, etc.)
• the organization of the reception of visitors
• SOLEIL's participation in the projects of partner institutes
• relations with universities, and in particular that of Paris-Sud (laboratories, Doctoral colleges, etc.).

Temporary partners in the construction phase of the lines

The schedule for integrating the personnel's salary in SOLEIL's budget doesn't provide for the constitution of teams around the line projects at the start of the projects. Respecting this schedule while clearly identifying the persons involved will require the creation of a category of temporary partners, with a defined function within one of the projects, to which SOLEIL's management will make a recruiting offer at a later stage. Persons already holding a position (CNRS, CEA or ES) will remain attached to their laboratory with a mutual commitment for their integration schedule. The LURE personnel, whose integration to SOLEIL will come after the shutdown of the beam, could remain attached to LURE during the lifetime of this unit, or be integrated more rapidly if these organizations agreed to it.

A satisfactory objective would be for 18 lines to be under construction in 2003.

At the end of phase I, the management team will change. The Scientific Directors, the persons in charge of the sections (replacing the deputies) and the persons in charge of the instrumentation and support unit will constitute the Scientific Management Committee giving the impetus, coordinating and following the scientific program as a whole. This committee will meet regularly (weekly or semi-monthly meetings). The Director General will attend these meetings and be given a report on their conclusions.
The Scientific direction committee will participate in the definition of the laboratories' scientific orientations and that of the required human and financial means for their implementation, and thus to the drafting of the budgets for the beamlines, the scientific sections and support laboratories. It is referred to by the scientific directors on all questions relative to proposals submitted to management.

Scientific sections

Each permanent or partner researcher will be attached to a thematic scientific section, the number and outlines of which will be progressively refined in the construction phase. Within the sections, the permanent and partner researchers, together with doctoral and post-doctoral staff and interns, will organize themselves and team up in a flexible and evolutional mode around the scientific projects.

The persons in charge of the sections will provide the impetus and follow-up for the scientific activity in the fields covered by their section. As such, they will be in touch with the concerned scientific communities' needs. They will be appointed by management upon recommendation from the scientific directors. The appointment is for five years, and is potentially renewable. They will participate in recruiting and assessing the personnel in their section. They will have budgetary responsibilities described further below. They will coordinate and follow the relations with the laboratories, teams and partner researchers. They will participate in the setting up of the program committees for line assessment. They will coordinate the drafting of the section's annual scientific report.

The sections will also be responsible for relations with the national community and forecasting its needs.

Beamlines

The scientific activity of each beamline and its functioning will be ensured by three researchers (or executives), a senior technician or engineer for studies, and a post-doctoral researcher. The line personnel as a whole will participate in greeting outside users. Within SOLEIL's technical and computer science divisions, the persons in charge will participate in the development and proper functioning of the lines through their assignment to carry out and follow-up a project for a given time. In the long term, each line will have an identified correspondent in the technical and computer science divisions.
The line will be attached to one or two main scientific sections. Each beamline, whether mono- or multi-purpose, will be placed under the responsibility of a scientist who will be its spokesperson. He will ensure that research of the highest level will be developed on the line. He will be appointed for a five-year tenure, which can be renewed by the Direction upon the scientific direction committee's recommendation. In the event that the appointment would take place during the construction of the beamline, a two-year extension is guaranteed following the opening of the line. The person in charge of the line will coordinate human resources management and the budget allocated to the line, as well as the planning for the use of the line. In consultation with the line personnel, he will establish the provisional budget for the line to be presented to the scientific direction committee by the relevant person(s) in charge of the section. Before each program committee meeting, he will be consulted on the feasibility of all the experimentation projects submitted for his line.

To ensure a strong link with the user communities, each line will be appointed a line committee representative for the concerned communities. His role will be to define, in consultation with the line team, the main technological orientations enabling a coherent and evolutional scientific program to be carried out.

"Instrumentation and support to experimentations" unit

This unit will ensure the coordination of enhancements and experimentations carried out on the lines by the engineers and senior technicians appointed to the lines. It will consist of support laboratories (optics, detectors) and specialized laboratories (biology, chemistry, surfaces). The persons attached to this unit will be the experimentation hall coordinators. They will ensure a permanent link between the users, the control room and the units on-duty, emergency repairs and access to shared infrastructures.

The mission of the support laboratories, optics and detectors, will be to ensure the development, manufacturing and implementation of high-performance instruments necessary for the proper functioning of the beamlines. As such, the teams are involved in both research and development and service activities.

The specialised laboratories have instruments enabling additional preparation and characterization of the samples studied on the beamlines (activity open to users) to be carried out. It also enables the SOLEIL researchers to carry out the experimentations required for achieving their own research objectives.

The activity of each SOLEIL researcher falls under two major categories:

• He plays an essential role in the evolution, development, scientific production and future use of the beamline and/or the instrument(s) he operates. He is involved in the maintenance and organization of beamline activity. As a whole, these tasks correspond to 60% of his activity. Within this framework he participates in the reception of users for a work period not exceeding 30% of his activity.
• He is involved in research activity related to a specific theme. A fraction of his time (up to 40%) is dedicated to this activity, which may be partly carried out in an outside laboratory or another synchrotron radiation center. Within the framework of this activity, he develops collaborations, publishes and makes known the results obtained, may be involved in teaching and disseminating science and scientific culture, as well as in supervising his interns and doctoral students. He is allotted beamline time reserved specifically for this activity. In the case of long-term collaborations, a contract may be established with the relevant laboratories, specifying the concerned party's commitment.

The assessment of SOLEIL researchers is carried out on this dual basis.

In the operation phase, the beamline hours, actually available to users once the machine-hours are deducted, are about 5500 hours/year. On a line in normal operation, these hours are distributed as follows:

1. 75% is alloted to users by the SOLEIL's program committees.
2. 5% is alloted by the scientific directors to urgent or high-priority projects.
3. 20% is alloted to:

• experimentations maintenance and enhancement,
• the researchers' personal research, and that of SOLEIL's students and post-doctoral researchers who may, in addition, be given beamline time allotted by the program committees.

In the case of beamlines shared by numerous partner researchers, this share may be increased, but not exceeding 25%.

The principle of partnerships is a major component of SOLEIL's scientific activity which may be adapted to various situations. It applies to researchers, teacher-researchers and individual engineers attached to an outside team. The partnership's objective is:

• to facilitate collaborations between SOLEIL researchers and outside laboratories and promote mobility both ways.
• to create or strengthen a partnership between Synchrotron SOLEIL and a laboratory with part of its activity requiring the use of synchrotron radiation.

The partner laboratory makes available its competence and specific tools to a wide community of SOLEIL users; in exchange, it enjoys special access to SOLEIL installations. One of the main sources of support for this partnership is the personnel attached to the laboratory and personally associated with Synchrotron SOLEIL. This personnel shares its activity between both establishments, salaries being paid in full by the financial organization of the attached laboratory.

• Application modalities

Strategy development
The scientific direction team, including the relevant advisors, carry out an analysis of the context specific to each line project validated by the Board. Based on discussions with the project promoters and after consulting their résumés, as well as meeting with them about implementing their projects (provisional planning, budget, personnel), it develops a strategy for creating a team (recruiting and possible partnerships), enabling each person to contribute to the success of the project to the best of his ability.

Recruiting a person in charge of a line

There are two possibilities:

• Case 1: The scientific direction team, including advisors, considers that one or several APS spokespersons applying for this position have the required skills to fulfill the job.
• Case 2: Among the APS spokespersons none has applied for this position or fulfills the required conditions. The job is open to recruitment through the standard procedure and according to the quota for available jobs. The scientific direction team and advisors then choose from among the applicants.

A synthesis sheet of the strategy developed for the line is drafted. It includes the résumé and scientific project of the applicant chosen to be in charge of the line as well as, if the situation allows, proposals for the two other permanent line executives. This sheet is forwarded for information and advice, and quickly returned, to three members of the Scientific Advisory Committee: the chairperson, the in-house reporter for the project, and a third researcher proposed jointly by the chairperson and the relevant scientific director.

Based on these elements, the scientific direction team and advisors take a decision and, if it is positive, make a recruiting proposal to R&D.
If the applicant chosen holds a position in an organization (CNRS, CEA, MEN), he or she may be hired immediately if the job is available, or opt for deferred hiring in the SOLEIL grid at a specific date for which both parties enter into a firm commitment. The statute of temporary partner is thus validated.

Recruiting two other permanent line executives

Following the same strategy as defined above, propositions for both executives are forwarded to the Scientific Advisory Committee representatives via the synthesis sheet, or through a document forwarded at a later date.

Deux cas se présentent :

• Case 1: The applicants for specific functions on the line, (possibly in charge of various instruments if the line is multi-purpose), validated by the scientific direction and advisors, hold a position in an organization (CNRS, CEA, MEN). Following approval by the person already designated to be in charge of the line, R&D takes its decision, and a mutual commitment is made on the schedule and conditions for immediate or deferred hiring by SOLEIL.
• Case 2: The jobs are open to recruiting according to schedule. R&D takes its decision following approval by the person already in charge of the line.

Notes :

• Responsibility for the line requires a full-time commitment to SOLEIL and is therefore incompatible with the status of part-time partner researcher.
• For reasons of opportunity, the "first person recruited in the grid" may not be the person in charge of the line but a young person (post-doctoral or second ESRF scientist) who could be of particular interest to SOLEIL .

Line technicians

The same commitment principle applies for applicants hired by SOLEIL and the person in charge of the line.

The experimental division budget falls under several headings. Before review by management, the budgetary proposals are submitted to the scientific direction committee by the persons in charge of the scientific sections or instrumentation.
Sections

Each section is allocated an operating and investment (equipment of mutual interest) budget. The person in charge of the section drafts the annual budget proposal in consultation with the researchers involved and manages the allocated budget. In this framework, each permanent researcher is allocated a sum of money intended to cover the expenses related to his personal research, essentially missions. The operating budget of the section may be used for supporting heavier missions or missions calling for arbitration.

Beamlines

Each beamline is allocated a specific budget managed by the person in charge of the line. In the construction phase, this budget is multi-annual (4 years) and consists mainly of investment. It is defined and specified by SOLEIL's management once the decision has been taken to build the line. In the operation phase, each beamline is allocated a budget for its operation and evolution. The annual budget proposal is drafted by the person in charge of the line in consultation with the different persons working permanently on the line or eventually partner researchers. The budget is managed by the person in charge of the line.

Support laboratories

Each support laboratory has an investment and operating budget. The budget is proposed by the person in charge of the laboratory and presented to the scientific direction committee by the person in charge of instrumentation and support and/or the concerned person in charge of a section.

Research contracts

The contract policy must be internalized in the laboratory's scientific policy. Requests for contracts and activity reports related to these contracts must be the object of detailed information supplied to the person heading the section, before it is submitted to the concerned scientific director for approval. In addition to scientific information as such, these documents must account for possible participation by SOLEIL in terms of personnel, beam time, or the use of services. Levies on contractual funding are made on a fixed basis defined by management based on the costs related to SOLEIL or specific commitments. These eventual levies do not concern the allocation of the beam time, subject of the contractual agreement, which must be explicitly authorized by management.

Evaluation of Synchrotron SOLEIL's scientific activity
The scientific advisory committee forwards its advice to the Board on synchrotron center activity on a regular basis. In order to examine the activity of each beamline - every 4 years on average - it relies on a line assessment committee consisting of several appropriate outside experts, half of whom are chosen by the scientific advisory committee, and the other half by management.

Every 4 years, the center's scientific activity is submitted to the company members for evaluation. For the CNRS, management forwards an activity report to the relevant sections of the National committee. The relevant assessment committee consists of members of the scientific advisory committee and section representatives of the National committee for scientific research.

Assessment of personnel

SOLEIL's scientists, engineers, technicians and permanent administrative staff are either members of the Synchrotron SOLEIL's company or assigned to SOLEIL's research unit (Unité de Recherche de SOLEIL, or URS). The personnel's activity as a whole is assessed in-house according to a single procedure.

For Company members, the assessment report is an element used by SOLEIL's management for career promotion and increased responsibilities.

For URS members, the assessment is carried out by the National committee's relevant sections according to the organization's standard procedures. The applied criteria are those used by other research structures, taking into account the specific aspects and constraints of the synchrotron center personnel's activity. Within the framework of this procedure, the in-house assessment report is passed on for information to the CNRS by SOLEIL's management.

The assessment and initial drafting of an in-house assessment report are carried out as follows:

Permanent scientific personnel

• For heads of sections: by one of the scientific directors
• For heads of lines: jointly by the relevant head(s) of section and concerned scientific director.
• For other scientific staff: jointly by the head of section and the person in charge of the line.

Engineers, technicians and administrative personnel

• For the persons in charge of the laboratories and specific support: jointly by a scientific director and, depending on the case, the person in charge of the "instrumentation and support to experimentation" unit or a head of section.
• For personnel assigned to the laboratories: by the head of laboratory
• For senior engineers or technicians working on the beamlines: by the head of the beamline, upon the recommendation of the head of the "instrumentation and support to experimentation " unit. 
• For engineers working on several beamlines: jointly by the head(s) of the concerned section.
• For the (Chargé d'affaires? person in charge of partnerships?): by the head of unit, on the recommendation of the persons in charge of the beamlines they work on.
• For the administrative personnel: jointly by a scientific director in charge of the unit.

Scientific partners

Upon request, an in-house assessment report, the initial drafting of which is the head of section's responsibility, is forwarded to the head of the laboratory they are attached to.

For the sake of efficacy and a greater sense of responsibility on everyone's part, SOLEIL's general organization is designed so that the various levels of responsibility are clearly defined for each field. The settlement of conflicts must be carried out at the concerned level. Only if this proves to be impossible will arbitration take place at a higher level with the participation of all parties involved.