Rules for experiment proposals

Collaborations may submit to LNGS Letters of Intent (LOI) or Experimental Proposals (EP).
Addenda or Status reports may be appended to these documents. Often a LOI is considered the first step toward an EP.
An EP, depending on the size of the experiment and of the commitment requested to the Laboratory, must contain all the scientific, economic and organizational elements that are necessary to the Laboratory to make a decision.
Necessary pieces of information to be supplied are:

1. Description of the experiment:
• Description of the physics case (including comparison with other experiments or proposals),
• Evaluation of backgrounds,
• Environmental resources (water, energy, etc.) and forecast of emissions, related to the installation, commissioning, running and decommissioning (a mass balance could be necessary),
• Needed Research and Development (if applicable),
• Description of prototypes (if any),
• Milestones.
  
  
2. Requests to the Laboratory:
• Request of underground space, specifying the geometry, the time needed for installation, commissioning, running and decommissioning,
• Same for outside spaces and time of occupancy,
• Needs of infrastructures,
• Requests to the Services of the Laboratory,
  
  
3. Safety and environmental issues are a primary concern of the Laboratory. The following circumstances must be taken explicitly into account.
   
   The facility is:
• located underground,
• close to a free-way,
• in a seismic zone,
• located in a National Park (Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga), a large (1500 km²) protected area.
  
  
In the facility:
• water from the rock is taken to an aqueduct,
• about 100 l/s of water percolate from the rock, then they are drained into a circuit, delivered to a pipe under free-way and finally to a river.

Safety rules are specified by Italians and European laws, by the safety manual of the laboratory and by specific instructions of the Laboratory.
LNGS has adopted an EMS (Environmental Management System) conform to ISO 14001 standard, described in the Environmental Manual. Procedures are established to manage the most significant environmental aspects, objectives and targets. LNGS EMS is periodically verified by International Certifying Body.
The Laboratory has the responsibility to enforce the observance of these laws and rules. No infrastructure or object may be introduced in the Laboratory without previous approval. Any infrastructure or object to be introduced in the Laboratory must be checked by the safety service of the Laboratory before approval, and the relate operations must be compliance to the EMS procedures.
Any person which have an operational role, must be formed and informed by minimal level to work in the laboratories, particularly in the underground halls.

4. Collaboration members, specifying:
• The spokesperson,
• The contact person (normally present on the site),
• The GLIMOS (Group Leader In Matter Of Safety),
• The RAE (Responsabile Ambientale d’Esperimento – environmental experiment responsible), normally present on the site, according to the EMS procedure,
• The responsibilities of each Institution,
• The expected financial contribution of each Institution and their time scales (including all phases, decommissioning included),
• The granted financial contribution of each Institution and their time scales.

A LOI may be a simpler document, but, if it includes the request for the use of underground space (or for other resources of the Laboratory) and environmental impact data, the relevant parts of the above mentioned information must be included