In this article a method for lifetime measurements in the sub-picosecond regime via the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM) following the inelastic proton scattering reaction is presented. In a pioneering experiment we extracted the lifetimes of
30 excited low-spin states of $^{96}$Ru, taking advantage of the coincident detection of scattered protons and de-exciting $gamma$-rays as well as the large number of particle and $gamma$-ray detectors provided by the SONIC@HORUS setup at the University of Cologne. The large amount of new experimental data shows that this technique is suited for the measurement of lifetimes of excited low-spin states, especially for isotopes with a low isotopic abundance, where $(n,n^{prime}gamma$) or - in case of investigating dipole excitations - ($gamma,gamma^{prime}$) experiments are not feasible due to the lack of sufficient isotopically enriched target material.
