Starting in January 2025, everyone entering an Ames Lab facility will need to wear a badge. This includes employees, contractors, contributors, vendors, and visitors. The type of badge each person receives will depend on their role and how long they will be at the Lab. Check out the What Kind of Badge Do I Need? page for more details.

That depends on what type of badge you need. (Not sure what type of badge you need? Check here.)

• If you’re not eligible for a PIV Badge: Come get your Ames Lab Badge! Stop by 105 TASF anytime, or email us at badgingoffice@ameslab.gov if you prefer to schedule an appointment.

• If you are eligible for a PIV Badge: You don’t need to do anything right now. We’ll start the process to get current employees PIV Badges once our badge tracking system is ready. Employees will be contacted to start the PIV Badge process in batches by birthday month – for example, during June, the Badging Office will reach out to employees with June birthdays. It will take 2 years to get everyone at the Lab who needs one a PIV Badge.

• All employees: Get ready to start wearing whatever badge you have in Ames Lab facilities in January 2025. Stop by the Badging Office for a lanyard or clip, or choose your own.

• Current employees who are not eligible for a PIV Badge: Come get your Ames Lab Badge anytime! Stop by 105 TASF, or email us if you prefer to schedule an appointment.

• Current employees who are eligible for  PIV Badge: Stay tuned - The Badging Office will notify you when it's your turn to start the process to get your new badge.

Badges should be worn while inside DOE-owned buildings. DOE-owned buildings include TASF, Spedding Hall, Wilhelm Hall, the Metals Development Building, all Maintenance buildings, and the Sensitive Instrument Facility. It’s okay to wear your badge while walking directly between DOE-owned buildings on the ISU campus. This includes parking lots and sidewalks. If you have a safety concern, talk to us – we’ll work with you on a solution.

Employees and visitors should remove their badge or obscure it from view in ISU-owned buildings (even in DOE-leased space in those buildings), on the ISU campus, and anywhere else that is not a DOE-owned building. 

“Hiding” or “obscuring” a badge can mean taking it off and stowing it or covering it up. Good ways to hide or obscure your badge are tucking it inside a shirt, jacket, lab coat, pocket, or bag.

No, you should not wear your badge in other ISU buildings, even in DOE-leased space in ISU buildings. Many of our leased spaces in ISU-owned buildings are shared with non-Ames Lab employees, so not wearing a badge here helps protect you.

No, you should not wear your badge while walking around the ISU campus.

No, you should not wear your badge in public.

Only wearing your PIV Badge or Ames Lab Badge inside Ames Lab facilities is about keeping you, your data, your work, and your equipment safe and secure. This is about safety. We want to make sure you aren’t targeted for DOE information. By wearing your badge in DOE-owned buildings, you are letting others know you are authorized to be here. By not wearing your badge in ISU buildings, you’re helping ensure you aren’t a target.

If someone is not wearing their badge while in Ames Lab facilities and this becomes a pattern, their direct supervisor is empowered to talk with them about this. If not wearing a badge is tied to a safety concern, please talk with the Badging Office, and we will involve ESH and work with you on a solution. If someone still is not properly wearing their badge after talking with their direct supervisor, their department or division director will be notified. If this still does not resolve the situation, the appropriate member of executive lab leadership will be notified: The Chief Research Officer for Research, and the Chief Operations Officer for Operations.

Safety and security of the Lab is everyone’s responsibility. If you see something, say something. As we get closer to January 2025 when we’ll all be wearing badges, we’ll provide you with language you can use to talk to someone if you see them not wearing a badge.

• On a lanyard around your neck

• In an armband

• Clipped to your shirt, jacket, or lab coat

• On a belt loop

The Badging Office has lanyards and three different types of clips to attach your badge, and we are researching different armbands to add to the list of options. We will have plenty of each type so you can choose the one that works best for you. Check out options with pictures and details. 

You can absolutely choose your own lanyard or clip, as long as it allows you to safely complete the type of work you're doing - for example, we chose to only order lanyards that break away in the back if they get caught in something.

We recommend breakaway lanyards for safety, which is why all three options you can get at the Badging Office are breakaway designs.

We’ve heard your concerns about lanyards breaking away easily. We have been testing our lanyards and will continue testing a lanyard before we hand it to you in the future so we’re sure it doesn’t create safety concerns.

Yes, you can wear your badge attached to a belt loop. The DOE Order says everyone who gets a badge must agree to "Wearing the DOE PIV credential/LSSO badge conspicuously, photo side out, in a location above the waist and on the front of the body while having access to DOE facilities. (This requirement may be modified for operational or safety reasons.)" We took your questions and concerns to Lab leadership after the first open forum, and they agreed that you can wear a badge attached to your belt loop if that’s what you prefer. Two of the clips we provide (the carabiner clip and the bulldog clip) would work clipped to a belt loop.

Yes, you can wear your badge using an armband. The ones we’re researching and testing now are usually worn on the upper arm, and they do fit a required badge holder (to protect your badge from RFID scanning). We will be ordering armbands as an option and will have them available at the Badging Office in addition to lanyards and clips. Watch Lab communications and newsletters and we will let you know when these come in.

You do need to wear your badge if you are wearing a lab coat in Ames Lab buildings, but you are allowed to remove your badge in spaces where it cannot be safely worn and then put it back on when leaving that space. You can also tuck your badge into a pocket or the lab coat itself while working.

While working within Ames Lab buildings, badges should be removed in spaces where they cannot be safely worn, e.g., laboratories, machine shops, mechanical areas, etc., and placed back on when personnel exit those areas. We encourage any employees who have concerns about badge wearing impacting their safety during work activities to talk with the Badging Office and our ESH project representative to determine mitigations. We have already met with several groups for this purpose.  If you have a safety concern, talk to us – we’ll work with you on a solution.

Ames Lab Badges will look the same for everyone. If you are a foreign national who has a PIV Badge, your badge will have a blue bar across the center.

It’s standard across the federal government that foreign national employees aren’t eligible to receive a PIV Badge until they’ve lived in the U.S. for at least 3 years. During this 3-year period, foreign national employees will receive an Ames Lab Badge, which will look identical to the Ames Lab Badges of other employees. Some national labs have chosen to use different visuals on their local site-specific only badges to distinguish foreign national employees, and we chose to make everyone’s Ames Lab Badge look the same regardless of citizenship.

PIV Badges and Ames Lab Badges will grant you physical access to Ames Lab facilities. You will scan them at card readers to open doors, just like you do with your ISUCard.

Unfortunately ISUCards don’t meet the federal standards for Local Site-Specific Only (LSSO) badges required by the DOE.

• Ames Lab must be able to control its badges. Since ISU “owns” ISUCards, Ames Lab can’t be responsible for issuing, returning, and destroying them - which is required by the DOE order.

• LSSO badges cannot have a dual purpose. Since ISUCards can be used at both Ames Lab and ISU, they violate this requirement.

Ames Lab has had an exemption in place to allow us to use ISUCards until we could get everyone new badges. We also got approval for employees to wear their current Ames Lab ID cards until they can receive their new Ames Lab Badge or PIV Badge.

Yes, you’ll still need your ISUCard for ISU services like the library and accessing ISU buildings outside of working hours.

Not at this time. Eventually badges will replace physical keys for most interior doors. First we need to install card readers on all interior doors, which is a separate project also being directly funded by DOE.

Once your new badge is ready, the Badging Office will use the number on the back of your badge to give it access to all the same places you have access on your ISUCard. Then they’ll remove access to Ames Lab facilities from your ISUCard. You’ll test the new badge to make sure it works, and then be on your way. The process takes a few minutes.

You will use the same Location Access request form in ServiceNow in the future to change access to buildings and doors. We will update this form’s text and images as we transition from using ISU Cards to Ames Lab Badges and PIV Badges for access. The Badging Office will take over managing door card access from Facilities and Engineering Services (FES). FES will still manage door access for physical keys for now. 

Yes, per DOE Order 473.3 Chapter XI, all Ames Lab and PIV Badges must be returned to the Badging Office (TASF 105) during business hours at the end of an employee's last day of work. We are working with HR to build this step into the checkout process.

Right now there are no plans to use badges to access computers. This is called “logical” access. If we do need to use badges to access computers in the future, the PIV Badges we are getting will work for that too.

Yes, you can use your PIV Badge or Ames Lab Badge when you travel to get government rates at hotels and other places.

In addition to updating this website with new information and resources throughout the transition, we will provide project updates through newsletters like the Insider, ESH Newsletter, and Director’s Update, and all-employee meetings like Town Halls and All Hands. We post all of this content on our Resources page so you can access it any time.

Absolutely! We're happy to come to your division or department meetings or find a time to talk to individual teams. Please reach out to badgingoffice@ameslab.gov to schedule.

Contact your Badging Team at badgingoffice@ameslab.gov, 515-294-6076, or stop by 105 TASF. This is where everyone will go to pick up their new badges and handle any badge-related issues. Visitors will also stop here on their way into the lab instead of going to the Plant Protection Section (guard) office.