User facility

Michigan State University (MSU) operates the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), with financial support from and furthering the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics. 

Hosting the most powerful heavy-ion accelerator, FRIB enables scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes in order to better understand the physics of nuclei, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security, and industry. User facility operation is supported by the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics as one of 28 DOE-SC user facilities.

A user facility is a federally sponsored research facility available for external use to advance scientific or technical knowledge under the following conditions:

• The facility is open to all interested potential users without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation.
• Allocation of facility resources is determined by merit review of the proposed work.
• User fees are not charged for non-proprietary work if the user intends to publish the research results in the open literature. Full cost recovery is required for proprietary work.
• The facility provides resources sufficient for users to conduct work safely and efficiently.
• The facility supports a formal user organization to represent the users and facilitate sharing of information, forming collaborations, and organizing research efforts among users.
• The facility capability does not compete with an available private sector capability.

Supporting the mission of the Office of Nuclear Physics in DOE-SC, FRIB enables scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security, and industry.

FRIB Laboratory

The FRIB Laboratory is the equivalent of a college within Michigan State University (MSU). The FRIB Laboratory aspires to be the world’s leading laboratory for training and research in rare isotope science, in accelerator science, and in applications of rare isotopes to meet societal needs. To realize this vision, FRIB builds on the expertise and the achievements of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. FRIB extends the frontier of nuclear science through unprecedented discovery potential.

Related entities

Key to the successful operation of FRIB are three additional entities that operate in conjunction with the FRIB Laboratory.

• The FRIB Theory Alliance (FRIB-TA) is a coalition of scientists from universities and national laboratories working to introduce a variety of programs that strengthen FRIB-related theory nationwide.
• The International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) is a National Science Foundation AccelNet Network of Networks. AccelNet is designed to accelerate the process of scientific discovery and prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations.
• The Center for Nuclear Astrophysics across Messengers (CeNAM) brings together scientists from different fields to explore questions about the universe, combining nuclear science, geochemistry, and astronomy.