The “Addendum to the French/UK IN2P3/EPSRC General Agreement in Nuclear Physics (April 1997)” setup the Loan Pool Management Committee (LMC) in order to manage and maintain EUROGAM resources. These divide naturally into two groups: items which were, at that time, committed to the EUROBALL Project, and those available for exploitation by other parties within the framework of the original France/UK collaboration. The former are currently overseen by the EUROBALL Owners Committee. The remaining equipment, of which the main items are 23 Ge detectors and 15 BGO suppression shields, form the basis of the Gamma-Ray Loan Pool. The LMC will assign these resources to experimental collaborations led by UK or French scientists, based on the scientific merits of the requests and IN2P3-EPSRC scientific policy, according to the rules set out below which were drawn up to maximise the scientific output of the resources.
LOAN POOL OPERATION
The basic operation of the pool can be summarised in the following points:
- Requests will be entertained only from collaborations with strong French and/or UK involvement. Bids require a completed Loan Pool Request Form (see below).
- There will be two allocations of pool resources per year: one in January, for loans during the period July to December of the same year, and a second in July, for loans during the period January to June of the following year. Deadlines for requests will be advertised only on the Loan Pool website.
- Allocations will be made only for the appropriate six month period.
- A maximum of 15 Ge detectors will normally be allocated to a single loan.
In addition, the LMC wishes to maximise the use of the resource and its scientific output. The following points may therefore be of interest to potential users:
- Outside of the usual request-allocation sequence, bids may be made to use any detectors which have not been allocated during that six month period. (Such bids also require a completed Loan Request Form, as described below).
- Allocations will be made strictly for the appropriate six month period only. However, the LMC encourages users wishing to request equipment for periods longer than six months to make their intentions clear at the time of the original request.
- If any requests are in conflict, an attempt would be made by the Chairperson and the Vice-Chair to seek a compromise arrangement between the appropriate parties. In case that no compromise could be found, the final decision will be taken by the LMC.
In order to borrow equipment from the Loan Pool, each collaboration must conform to the following rules:
- A single spokesperson (French or UK only) will be responsible for each request and any subsequent loan of equipment.
- Each request must be accompanied by a Loan Request Form, available on the Loan Pool website, completed in full. This form supplies all the necessary information for the LMC to come to a decision about the loan, including equipment requested, loan duration and scientific basis. Larger collaborations requesting more substantial loans are requested to supply a separate and more extensive justification, in addition to the Loan Request Form.
- In case of a loan corresponding to a programme of work at an accelerator facility, the request will need to have the support of the host laboratory
- On returning the equipment, the spokesperson is required to indicate the status of the Ge detectors by supplying the FWHM and FWTM at 1332 keV and a copy of the spectrum of 60Co, all taken with a shaping time of 4 to 6μs. Borrowers of shields must also supply information on the status of suppression shields.
- The use of loan pool equipment must be acknowledged in all resulting publications.
- References to all publications resulting from the use of loan pool equipment must be communicated to the Loan Pool Committee.
- The Loan Pool Committee may from time to time request from each spokesperson a brief summary of the outcome of a loan.
- Each collaboration will be charged 180 € per Ge detector per month for the entire period of the loan, unless explicit agreement is made with the LMC beforehand. There are currently no charges for the suppression shields. The spokesperson has the sole responsibility for payment of the charge to the LMC, but may make their own arrangements for collecting contributions within a collaboration.
- The spokesperson is expected to ensure that all equipment is used sensibly. Any misuse (such as dropping, failure to use bias shutdown, use of wrong polarity of high voltage and so on) will result in additional charges. Experiments which are of high risk to equipment, such as those in high neutron-flux environments, may also incur higher charges which will be determined when the request is assessed.
- All decisions about repair of equipment must be made by the LMC and not by the user or spokesperson. Such decisions may be delegated to the Loan Pool’s home-base laboratory.
- The spokesperson is responsible for the safe transport of equipment in appropriate packaging. Some transport boxes are specifically available for Loan Pool equipment. Transport should be through a reputable courier and will be paid for by the spokesperson.
