The interaction between the users and the staff may be basically of two kinds:

Local contact:

A person of the beamline staff (the local contact) will help the users to start the experiment and to provide the necessary information on the latest develpments on the beamline. The local contact may also help the users if problems appear. Normally the local contact can be reached by telephone during normal working hours.

Collaborations:

The users ask to someone(s) of the beamline to participate on their experiment. Normally the staff member(s) involved should be co-proposers on the Application for beam time at ESRF proposal. The experiment should be discussed in advance and planned in detail. In this case no local contact is needed since beamline personnel is directly involved in the experiment as users and will naturally provide the necessary help.