Czech Rez Institute to build instrument at ESS
The Czech Rez Institute will take part in the construction of the future ESS research facility through the building of a scientific instrument. At a high-level ceremony today, an agreement was signed on the Czech contribution to the preparations for ESS.
Today’s agreement follows on from the signing in February of the Czech Republic of the international agreement on ESS. The agreement formalises the Czech contribution to the current ESS Pre-Construction Phase, which amounts to 1.4 M€, and which will be carried out by the Rez Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. This is part of a future contribution to the ESS Construction Phase, which would finance the design and building of an instrument. The instrument will be one out of the 22 planned instruments for scientific experiments at ESS, and it will constitute the Czech in-kind contribution to ESS.
The ceremony at the Lund City Hall took place in the presence of high-level delegations from the Czech Republic and the ESS host countries Sweden and Denmark. The agreement was signed by Dr Jan Dobeš, Director of the Rez Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Colin Carlile, the ESS Director-General. The ceremony was hosted by the Deputy Mayor Christer Wallin.
- I am honoured to be able to conclude this agreement in the presence of such a notable delegation, and I am impressed by the large support for the ESS project from the Czech Republic, as shown here today, says Colin Carlile.
- I am also looking forward to collaborating with the Rez Institute. The instruments will be the main key to the success of ESS as a research facility, and we will benefit greatly from the expertise at the institute.
The Czech Republic was represented by, besides Director Dobeš, Dr Jan Kára, Czech ambassador to Sweden, PhDr Ing Zdeněk Lyčka, Czech ambassador to Denmark, Professor Miroslav Tůma, Vice President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Dr Jan Hrušák, Director General for Science and Research, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Dr Petr Lukáš, Deputy Director, Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Mats Bååth, Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic.
The delegation from Sweden and Denmark was led by, besides Christer Wallin and Colin Carlile, the President of ESS Board Sven Landelius, the Head of the Danish ESS Bureau Lars Kolte, and the deputy Vice Chancellor of Lund University Sven Strömqvist.
For more information, please contact:
Colin Carlile, ESS Director-General. E-mail colin.carlile@esss.se, Tel. 46-(0)46-222 83 02
Marianne Ekdahl, Communications Officer Press & Politics. E-mail marianne.ekdahl@esss.se, Tel. 46-(0)46-222 83 89
ESS IN SHORT:
The European Spallation Source – the next generation facility for materials research and life science
The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be a multi-disciplinary research laboratory based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. ESS can be likened to a large microscope, where neutrons are used instead of light to study materials – ranging from polymers and pharmaceuticals to membranes and molecules – to gain knowledge about their structure and function. ESS will be up to 100 times better than existing facilities, opening up new possibilities for researchers in for example health, environment, climate, energy, transport sciences and cultural heritage.
ESS is an intergovernmental research infrastructure project, and it will be built in Lund in southern Scandinavia. At least 17 European countries will take part in the construction, financing and operation of the ESS. Sweden and Denmark will co-host the ESS and cover 50 percent of the 1,4 B€ investment costs and 20 percent of the operating costs together with the Nordic and Baltic states.
The European Spallation Source ESS AB is a public limited company, today owned by the Swedish and the Danish states. ESS AB is planning the future international ESS organisation. Building is expected to start around 2013, the first neutrons to be produced in 2019 and the facility to be fully operational around 2025.
ESS will support a user community of 5000 researchers and will have great strategic importance for the development of the European Research Area. Near by there will be complementary laboratories, such as the synchrotron MAX IV in Lund and XFEL and PETRAIII in Hamburg.