Denmark becomes shareholder in European Spallation Source
Denmark has become shareholder in the European Spallation Source ESS AB, acquiring 26 percent of the shares. At the same time, three representatives from Denmark become Members of the Board.
Sweden and Denmark are host countries for the ESS project. The public company ESS AB, up to now owned solely by the Swedish state, is charged with planning and constructing the research facility ESS. In connection with an extra general meeting held in Stockholm on Tuesday, the Danish state acquired 26,316 percent of the shares in the company.
ESS will be built in Lund, while the ESS Data Management & Software Centre will be built in Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute, benefiting from the Copenhagen-based Nordic Data Grid and Danish expertise within high-power computing and software for neutron research.
- It is a large and symbolic step that both host countries now jointly own the ESS. Today we see the beginnings of the future multinational ownership of the international research facility ESS, says Colin Carlile, the ESS CEO.
At the extra general meeting three Danish Board Members were elected:
Inge Maerkedahl, Director-General, Danish Agency for Research and Innovation
Lars Goldschmidt, Deputy Director-General, Confederation of Danish Industry
Lars Kolte, Denmark’s Chief Negotiatior for ESS
- ESS now gets three additional highly respected Board Members. They contribute with broad competence and wide-reaching networks within Danish science and business, and we look very much forward to working with them, says Colin Carlile.
Today 16 countries are represented in the ESS Steering Committee. As the final negotiations on each partner country's financial participation will take place, more countries will become shareholders.
For more information, please contact:
Colin Carlile, ESS AB Director. E-mail colin.carlile@esss.se, Tel. 46-(0)46-222 83 02
Lars Kolte, Chief Negotiator, Denmark, +45 26 81 21 40
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 sixteen 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.
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