ESS Industry Day: More than 400 industrialists showed great interest for a European flagship project
Today the ESS Industry Day was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. More than 400 representatives from European business and industry took part and gained information about how to get involved in the construction of the ESS.
The European Spallation Source will be the world’s leading research centre for materials research and life science with neutrons. It will be built in Lund in southern Sweden. The ESS Industry Day was held in order to provide general information to European business and industry about the opportunities to take part in the construction of ESS, and about the R&D possibilities once the ESS has been built. The keynote speakers were Peter Honeth, State Secretary at the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science, Inge Maerkedahl, Director for the Danish Authority for Research and Innovation, and Juan Carlos Cortes, Director of Industry, in the Spanish Ministry of Science. They all pointed out the importance of European collaboration in the ESS project, and the importance of ESS for increasing European innovation and growth. - We are very happy about the great interest from business and industry in this European flagship project. Most parts of the ESS technology will be highly advanced, and the construction will be a challenge for us, for partner countries and for industry, says Colin Carlile, Director of the ESS Secretariat. - We have now been able to link to vital business and industry sectors, that will be important in the coming procurement process. The ESS construction is costed at around 1,4 billion euros. Out of this, 45 % will be spent by the central ESS team in Lund, and 55 % by the participating partner countries, mainly through in-kind contributions. - We need to liaise with industry now at this early stage so that European R&D-intensive companies will be able to fully exploit the scientific potential of the ESS, says Bob Cywinski, spokesperson for the ESS Preparatory Phase. The ESS Industry Day has been financed by the ESS Preparatory Phase, a project within the EU framework program for research FP7.