The call for beamtime application is now open!
The first proposal submission deadline is
9th February, 2026
How it works
The Budapest Neutron Centre runs a regular, open-access, international user programme that involves 14 neutron instruments and a few related service laboratories. You can apply for beamtime at the BNC on the listed instruments. Before applying for beamtime, please consult the description of the required instrument, and it is also encouraged to contact the respective instrument responsible when planning experiments and writing proposals to discuss feasibility (their contact is given on the page of the instruments). To apply for beamtime, the BNC research proposal/application form has to be submitted electronically via e-mail to the BNC User Office.
Calls are announced on the BNC website and social media pages, and via mailing lists*. The submitted proposals are refereed by the International User Selection Panel of the BNC. The User Office negotiates the dates for the experiment with the principal investigator (PI). All BNC proposals remain valid until their regular expiration date of one year. Expired proposals may be resubmitted and will be refereed again.
Support through NEPHEWS
NEPHEWS – is a user-oriented project that supports free access to the world-class collective of Europe’s premiere open advanced neutron (N), synchrotron (SR) and free-electron laser (FEL) complementary research infrastructures (RI).
If you apply for the beamtime at the BNC, do it with the support of NEPHEWS!
What does NEPHEWS support mean?
NEPHEWS offers reimbursement of costs for travel and accommodation for two people from the user group. Read more about this at BNC-Nephews – Rules and Procedures of cost reimbursement_2026.
The travel and accommodation cost of two researchers per user group is reimbursed by NEPHEWS, if their affiliations is from a widening country or a country without large research infrastructure. However the NEPHEWS TNA programme poses certain restrictions on the eligibility of users, such as applicants should be a user group, which is equal to a research team of one or more researchers led by a User Group Leader. NEPHEWS has no restrictions on the subject of proposals, as it is not a theme-oriented EU funding scheme.
If you want to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the grant, please indicate that on the BNC beamtime application form (Project information/Proposal type: NEPHEWS). When your proposal reaches the evaluation threshold and the beamtime be granted, the NEPHEWS team will contact you directly with further guidelines. After measurement, for the purpose of reporting to the European Commission, all users applying for financial support are asked to complete the evaluation form. This should be consulted with beamline scientist at RI who will ensure that all beamtime information on the form is correct.
NEPHEWS project also support TWINNING programme
We encourage you to read BNC’s Terms of Reference (https://bnc.hu/terms-of-reference/, ToR) and Scientific Data Policy (https://bnc.hu/scientific-data-policy/, SDP).
* If you would like to subscribe to the BNC Users e-mail list, write an e-mail to the BNC User Office.