Accelerated Discovery – Fast Access at MAX IV

MAX IV Laboratory, inaugurated in 2016, is a Swedish national synchrotron radiation facility that presently has 16 beamlines in operation. MAX IV consists of three accelerators with different characteristics. The 3 GeV storage ring is the world’s first fourth-generation ring and pioneered the use of the multibend achromat lattice to produce ultrahigh brightness X-rays. MAX IV is the continuation of an activity that started around 40 years ago with the inauguration of the MAX I storage ring. A key factor to making this development possible and successful is a strong connection with our user community.MAX IV is committed to building and supporting a diverse user base and offering effective user access by being flexible to the needs of our experienced users, while training the users of tomorrow. Simultaneously, we aim to expand our portfolio of available techniques and open existing techniques to new user communities.The Fast Access mode, also known as Rapid Access, is a mode where users can apply for a shorter type of beamtime with a faster turnaround, and is an essential tool for achieving our goals. Traditional proposal cycles, often requiring more than 6 months between application, submission, and experiment execution, can be a limiting factor, particularly for time-sensitive or proof-of-concept studies. Fast Access provides a parallel path to discovery. Faster, more flexible, and purpose-built for a dynamic research environment.Fast Access at MAX IV opened in 2021 for the MX-beamline BioMAX and the microscopy beamline MAXPEEM, and more beamlines have since joined. However, Fast Access is not equally suitable for all beamlines, and the needs among user communities vary. To accommodate as many users and beamlines as possible and make the process clear, we decided on three use cases for Fast Access that users can apply for. These cases are developed with both the beamline capacity and users’ needs in mind.