The APS welcomes industrial users doing both proprietary and nonproprietary research and considers requests for work ranging from short-term feasibility studies to long-term research projects, either on a stand-alone basis or in collaboration with facility or academic colleagues.

Scientists come to the APS to carry out investigations that increase our fundamental knowledge of processes and materials, which allows us to move beyond observation to control for a nearly endless array of technologically and economically important applications, including advances in manufacturing, information technology, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, oil and gas, transportation, agriculture, environment, and many other areas that are critical to our technologies, economy, and physical well-being.

For example, research carried out at the IMCA-CAT beamline at the APS furthered the development of a GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical, Votrient®, that combats two deadly forms of cancer: soft-tissue sarcoma and kidney cancer.

More than 230 companies have research agreements with the APS, including (but not limited to) Chevron, 3M, Amoco, Bayer, Caterpillar, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Exxon, Ford Motor Co., GE Global Research Center, General Motors, Intel, Kraft Foods Technology Center, Monsanto, Packer Engineering, Texas Instruments, Westinghouse Electric, and a comprehensive roster of leading pharmaceutical firms.

The Department of Energy has some prerequisites for user research. The industry partner and Argonne must sign a legal agreement before experimental work at the APS can begin; the type of work being done will determine the appropriate agreement. For work published in the open literature, beam time is free; for proprietary work, users must pay the APS an hourly fee for operational costs.