The EA process is a key safety process at the Australian Synchrotron.
All scheduled experiments must undergo review by the Beamline team and Safety, to help to ensure that all experiments are being carried out in a safe manner and according to regulatory and/or ANSTO requirements.
Your EA form MUST be approved before the start of any onsite activities and prior to shipping any items to site. Failure to submit and gain approval for your EA within the required deadlines will result in your experiment being cancelled.
A Quick Reference guide can be found here.
Our EA form is a type of risk assessment that we use to outline the hazards, risks and mitigations in place for a scheduled experiment. Any aspect of an experiment carried out onsite at the Australian Synchrotron must be captured for review in this form; please note that we do not need to review activities that are not conducted onsite at the Synchrotron e.g. specific sample preparation carried out in your home laboratory.
Every scheduled experiment at the Australian Synchrotron must have an approved EA in place. You currently require a new EA form per scheduled beamtime; therefore if your beamtime has been split into two, to conduct your experiments at different times, you will need an EA per separate booking. Note, to simplify this process please be aware of the ‘Clone’ function within the Portal: Designed to allow submitters to duplicate information from a previous EA which can then be used when submitting a new EA.
Your EA form will undergo review by a) the User Office, b) your beamline scientists and c) the Safety team. You may be contacted for further information at any time during the review process and/or you may be required to update and resubmit forms with additional information.
For example, if the experiment or samples/chemicals being brought onsite are considered to be of higher risk, you may be required to complete and upload a more detailed risk assessment for your experiment (using a form standard to your home institute).
All EAs must be submitted at least 5 full working days before the date of the experiment. Any alterations to a submitted EA must be made, and the EA re-submitted, at least 3 full working days before the date of the experiment.
Your EA form MUST be approved prior to shipping items to site and prior to experiment start (remote access, mail-in OR onsite).
Only Users listed on an approved EA as either ‘Attending onsite’ or ‘Remote access’ can conduct the experiment (onsite or remotely respectively).
Each User group must nominate a Group Spokesperson; see ‘The EA form’ below.
Only samples/chemicals and electrical equipment (excluding laptops and phones) that have been listed on an approved EA can be brought to site. Note, the EA sample spreadsheet template has been updated as of January 2022; see ‘How to complete the EA Sample Spreadsheet’ below.
You can update your EA form after experiment start, e.g. to request to add a new onsite User or add a new sample for analysis, however your experiment at the beamline will be haledt for however long it takes to re-review and re-approve the updated form.
For further information see: https://www.ansto.gov.au/our-facilities/australian-synchrotron/frequently-asked-questions-for-users
A detailed pdf can also be found on the website, as can further information about your scheduled beamtime: https://www.ansto.gov.au/our-facilities/australian-synchrotron/before-your-experiment
On this page:
How to start your EA form
Log into your Australian Synchrotron Portal Account.
Navigate to Experiment Authorisations section and click ‘Create and Manage’
On the ‘Manage Experimental Authorisations’ page, select ‘Create EA’ to start the process. The forms are accessible from here.
The EA form
EA Tabs
Detail - Experiment title and scheduled beamtime dates. Answer any beamline specific questions about your experiment.
Users - User details including safety induction status. *Note, only Users listed on an approved EA may conduct an experiment.
Group Spokesperson - The main duties and responsibilities of the group spokesperson include:
being physically present for onsite experiments during the allocated beamtime; they must supply their phone number and be contactable during the scheduled beamtime.
being the main point of contact during the allocated beamtime.
ensuring their User group adhere to the AS’s policies and procedures.
ensuring their Users have completed required online and onsite AS Safety inductions.
ensuring their Users conduct themselves in a courteous and professional manner.
for submitting the EA form; however another person within a User group can submit an EA and nominate an appropriate Spokesperson.
Travel Funding & Accom - Travel funding.
Samples - A list of all the samples, chemicals and equipment required for an experiment to be conducted onsite. Download, complete and upload the sample spreadsheet if required.
How to complete the EA Sample Spreadsheet
The EA sample spreadsheet template has been updated as of Run 1, 2022. New EA spreadsheets have black headings and updated INSTRUCTIONS in row 2. See ‘Example’ at the end of this page.
Please note that the 2022 sample spreadsheet template asks for different information to the previous versions.
Instead of cloning previous spreadsheets to assist with EA submission, please ensure to transfer spreadsheet details into this new template.
Do not simply copy&paste from the old spreadsheet - check for the correct cell heading first.
If you do copy&paste information from a previous version spreadsheet, recommend paste special, paste values to maintain conditional formatting in the new sheet.
You must complete the following sections:
Sample Name: list each sample or chemical that you plan to use onsite for your scheduled experiment.
Physical, Health, and Environmental Hazards: for any sample with a Safety Data Sheet (SDS), you must list the appropriate Hazard Statement code/s in the relevant columns (Physical, Health and Environmental statement) e.g. the sample is fatal if swallowed, “H300”, so type H300 under the ‘Health Hazards’ heading.
Additional Hazards: you must mark each relevant box with an ‘x' per sample/chemical. Note, you cannot mark a chemical or sample as ‘No Hazards’ if there are hazards associated with the sample/chemical. Use your EA form to outline the mitigations in place to minimise the risks of the sample/chemical hazards that you are bringing onsite.
Beamline Specific Questions: ensure to scroll across the spreadsheet to see any beamline-specific questions. You must provide answers to the questions listed in these sections for each sample.
If any box on the spreadsheet turns yellow or orange, you must consult your beamline scientist or Safety team about your experiment before submitting your EA.
Yellow: review Biological Hazards & Controls page for more information.
Orange: review the Prohib. Restric. Carcinogens tab - see information across ➡
If any box on the spreadsheet turns red, where possible you must submit an SDS for that chemical as part of your EA form submission (it is understood that lab-made samples for example do not have official SDSs).
Red: review the Higher risk haz. statements tab - see information across ➡
Hazard Statements and Carcinogens
The new EA sample spreadsheets have two additional sheets:
see spreadsheet tabs -
🔴 Higher risk haz. statements
Hazard Statements are assigned to a hazard class or category and describe the nature of a chemical hazard, including where appropriate the degree of a hazard. They can be found on the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) or chemical label.
ANSTO has highlighted some Hazard Statements as higher risk and these chemicals/samples may require closer examination before they are allowed onsite. These flagged hazard statements are listed in this tab; you can also click here.
⚠ Prohib. Restrict. Carcinogens
This sheet contains a list of prohibited and restricted carcinogens. If your sample includes one of these carcinogens, you must speak with beamline staff before your experiment.
Prohibited carcinogens; their use is PROHIBITED onsite. These chemicals cannot be purchased, stored or used onsite.
Restricted carcinogens; Work Health and Safety Regulators of the Commonwealth and all states require a site authorisation (permit) for the use, handling or storage of all Restricted Carcinogens. This includes Cyclophosphamide for all sites covered by the Commonwealth authority, Comcare, which includes ANSTO Australian Synchrotron.
To see the list of prohibited and restricted carcinogens, click here.
Submitting an EA for review
You will be asked to confirm the following declaration upon EA submission:
I hereby confirm that all information I am supplying in support of this application for Experiment Authorisation is correct. I understand that any users or samples not listed will not be allowed into the Australian Synchrotron. I am duly authorised to complete and sign this application on behalf of the Users participating in this experiment.
An EA can only be submitted for review when all listed Users have completed their assigned (online) safety inductions to work on an ANSTO site.
When you have submitted your EA, it will undergo review by a) the User Office, b) your beamline scientists and c) the Safety team. You may be contacted for further information at any state during the review process and/or you may be required to update and resubmit forms if needed.
You can check the status of your EAs through the dashboard in the User Portal.
Once the EA has been approved by all three departments, the User will receive an email stating the experiment has been approved.
Example Sample Spreadsheet
The relevant cells in the spreadsheet will change colour automatically, indicating to researchers that they must contact beamline staff to discuss risk assessments for the hazardous substances.