France confirms its support for ESS with the signing of MoUs in Stockholm
Today, the European Spallation source and the French research agencies CEA and CNRS have started a collaborative work on the ESS Design Update. The collaboration agreements signed today will cover mainly technical R&D for the ESS project.
The agreements were signed in a ceremony at the French Embassy in Stockholm by the ESS Director-General Colin Carlile, the CEA General Administrator Bernard Bigot and Joël Bertrand, the CNRS General Director for Science, in the presence of a large high-level delegation representing the French and Swedish science communities and research agencies. The agreements follow on the bilateral research agreement entered into by France and Sweden in September 2010.
Today’s agreements set a framework for the cooperation betwen CEA, CNRS and ESS on the ESS Design Update Phase, planned to end in 2012. They cover essential R&D on key ESS accelerator components, as well as the development of instrumentation for spallation sources and the exchange of scientists.
- With today’s agreements, France confirms its strong support for the ESS project. As 2010 draws to a close, it is very heartening to see the strong support, which the ESS project has in Europe, materialising in terms of concrete agreements.
- I am convinced that our collaboration will strengthen both French and Swedish neutron science, and contribute to prepare the French science community for using the ESS. Today’s agreement on synchrotron radiation, including MAXIV, will also prove scientifically fruitful, says Colin Carlile, the ESS Director-General.
- We are very pleased to initiate this collaboration with two of the world’s absolutely leading laboratories, CEA and CNRS, and being able to launch the work on significant accelerator components. Now we will also move on to setting up new collaborations with other European laboratories, says Patrik Carlsson, ESS Director for Accelerator & Target.
The agreed work programmes on accelerator technology include the development of superconducting cavities, design and test of complete spoke and elliptical cryomodules, as well as contribution to the ESS Technical Design Report. The agreement on instrumentation include development of a new high brightness beam transport guide at the Laboratorie Léon Brillouin at Saclay near Paris.
- The key competence we get now would have taken several years to build up only here in Lund, says Mats Lindroos, Head of the ESS Accelerator Division. In addition, we contribute to the building-up of existing European large testing equipments, that we can use as test stands for both accelerator and instrumentation.
On Thursday 9 December, collaboration agreements were also signed between ESS and CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider, for the sharing of key personnel, the availability of specialised project management technology and an agreement on the assembly of a cryomodule test facility at CERN:
- It is often the way that the hard work put in by many people in the ESS team over many, many months, suddenly yields fruit. Especially noteworthy is the committed effort put in by Christian Vettier, the outgoing ESS Science Director, says Colin Carlile.
The CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, is the largest fundamental research organisation in Europe, and carries out publicly funded research in all fields through its institutes and laboratories. The CEA, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, is a large French government-funded technological research agency with multidisciplinary research programmes.
For more information, please contact:
Colin Carlile, ESS AB Director. 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 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 State. 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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