Each year, more than 3,200 scientists from universities, laboratories and private industry around the world conduct experiments at ORNL’s scientific user facilities. ORNL’s user facilities offer a diverse set of tools for experiments across a range of fields, including biology, materials and energy sciences, physics, engineering, and chemistry. ORNL’s user facilities include world-leading facilities for neutron scattering, high performance computing, material and nanoscale research, and additive manufacturing.
Access to ORNL user facilities is through the review and approval of user proposals, and depends on the scientific merit, suitability of the user facilities, and the appropriateness of the work to DOE objectives. DOE requires ORNL to execute user agreements, typically with a researchers’ institution, prior to granting access to a user facility.