Complex sentence: Although the proposal was to use incident protons to bombard the target, α-particles were available when the experiment was first done by a French, Russian, Romanian and American team that was largely unsupported financially.
Split into simpler sentences: Although the proposal was to use incident protons to bombard the target, α-particles were available when the first experiment was scheduled. It was done by a French, Russian, Romanian and American team that was largely unsupported financially.