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Guidelines to prepare your proposal

Students must work together to create an experiment proposal with the following structure:

  • Proposal
    • A written proposal of your experiment (up to 1000 words)
      that may be supported by diagrams or pictures
      (acknowledgements, references, formulas etc. and a
      reasonable amount of words in figures are
      not counted). It should contain:
      • Your motivation to take part in
        the competition and to choose
        the specific topic of your experiment
      • Your experiment idea and how you
        would like to use the beam
        for your experiment
      • What you hope to
        take away from
        the experience
    • Optional: A written proposal of a science
      education or outreach activity       (up to 200 words)
      that the members of your team have already organised
      or will organise in their community.
  • Optional: A one-minute video that summarises
    your written experiment proposal in a creative and
    entertaining way and that
    introduces the members of the team.

The winners will be selected on the basis of the written experiment proposal only. The video proposal and the outreach proposal are not mandatory for taking part in the competition. Yet, the best video proposal and the best outreach proposals will receive special prizes.

The evaluation will take into account the following criteria:

  1. Feasibility of the experiment
  2. Scientific method
  3. Motivation of the experiment
  4. Motivation to participate in BL4S
  5. Creativity of the experiment

Note that all of the above points are important for the judgment. We are not expecting a fully developed experimental proposal with a detailed setup and hypothesis. An idea of what you and your team want to find out or how you want to use the beamline communicated in a creative way is enough to take part in the competition. Do not worry if the technical details of the beamline facilities look a little daunting at first. We have provided several example experiments and people to contact for help.

Coaches are encouraged to help students understand which experiments can be done at a beamline. Yet, the students must create the proposal themselves. The winning teams will have the opportunity to work with scientists to refine their ideas before they come to the facility.

Please note that the CERN logo is legally protected and any use by third parties is forbidden. However, you can use the BL4S logo for your proposal if you would like.