Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
DESY is one of the world’s leading accelerator centres based in Germany. Researchers use the large-scale facilities at DESY to explore the microcosm in all its variety – from the interactions of tiny elementary particles and the behaviour of new types of nanomaterials to biomolecular processes that are essential to life. The accelerators and detectors that DESY develops and builds are unique research tools. The facilities generate the world’s most intense X-ray light, accelerate particles to record energies and open completely new windows onto the universe. That makes DESY not only a magnet for more than 3000 guest researchers from over 40 countries every year, but also a coveted partner for national and international cooperations. Committed young researchers find an exciting interdisciplinary setting at DESY. The research centre offers specialized training for a large number of professions. DESY cooperates with industry and business to promote new technologies that will benefit society and encourage innovations. This also benefits the metropolitan regions of the two DESY locations, Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin.
Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)
The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences based in Switzerland, conducting cutting-edge research in three main fields: matter and materials, energy and the environment and human health. PSI develops, builds and operates complex large research facilities. Every year, more than 2400 scientists from Switzerland and around the world come to PSI to use their unique facilities to carry out experiments that are not possible anywhere else. PSI is committed to the training of future generations.
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)
The HZDR is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. As registered, non-profit institution supported by the authorities of the Federal Government and the Free State of Saxony the HZDR pursues interdisciplinary research in the fields of Energy, Health, and Matter.
The eight scientific institutes are supported by four central departments:
- Research Technoplogy
- Information Services and Computing
- Technical Services
- Administration
Diamond Light Source
Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron. It works like a giant microscope, harnessing the power of electrons to produce bright light that scientists can use to study anything from fossils to jet engines to viruses and vaccines.
The machine accelerates electrons to near light speeds so that they give off light 10 billion times brighter than the sun. These bright beams are then directed off into laboratories known as ‘beamlines’. Here, scientists use the light to study a vast range of subject matter, from new medicines and treatments for disease to innovative engineering and cutting-edge technology.
Whether it’s fragments of ancient paintings or unknown virus structures, at the synchrotron, scientists can study their samples using a machine that is 10,000 times more powerful than a traditional microscope.
Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world, and its pioneering capabilities are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research.
MAX IV
The MAX IV facility, based in Sweden, will have the highest quality of X-rays available to scientists from academia and industry in the whole world. These X-rays will be used to understand, explain and improve the world around us. They will enable the study of materials that we use today and improve them beyond the performance that we know. In addition, MAX IV will allow scientists to develop new materials and products that we cannot even imagine today, such as medications with better and more precise functions and fewer side-effects, nanoparticles for diverse areas of application, including paints, catalysis or computing, or lighter and stronger packaging materials for the future.
Elettra
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste is a multidisciplinary international research center of excellence based in Italy, specialised in generating high quality synchrotron and free-electron laser light and applying it in materials and life sciences. Its mission is to promote cultural, social and economic growth through:
- Basic and applied research
- Technology and know-how transfer
- Technical, scientific and management education
- Role of reference in the national and international scientific networks
They develop excellence by providing state-of-the-art services for high-quality, internationally recognised research, thus contributing to enhance the positive impact and relevance of science on society. The main assets of the research centre are two advanced light sources, the electron storage ring Elettra and the free-electron laser (FEL) FERMI, continuously (H24) operated supplying light of the selected “colour” and quality to more than 30 experimental stations.
ALBA
ALBA is a 3rd generation Synchrotron Light facility located in Spain near Barcelona, being the newest source in the Mediterranean area.
It is a complex of electron accelerators to produce synchrotron light, which allows the visualisation of the atomic structure of matter as well as the study of its properties.
The 3 GeV electron beam energy at ALBA is achieved by combining a LInear ACcelerator (LINAC) and a low-emittance, full-energy BOOSTER placed in the same tunnel as the STORAGE RING. ALBA’s 270 meter perimeter has 17 straight sections all of which are available for the installation of insertion devices.
This large scientific infrastructure provides more than 6.000 hours of beam time per year and is available for the academic and the industrial sector, serving more than 2.000 researchers every year. Since as early as 2012, ALBA has been hosting official users, 65% from Spanish institutions and 35% from other countries.
Managed by the Consortium for the Construction, Equipping and Exploitation of the Synchrotron Light Source (CELLS), it is funded in equal parts by the Spanish and the Catalonian Administration.
SOLEIL
SOLEIL is located in France and is both an electromagnetic radiation source covering a wide range of energies (from the infrared to the x-rays) and a research laboratory at the cutting edge of experimental techniques dedicated to matter analysis down to the atomic scale, as well as a service platform open to all scientific and industrial communities.
In applied research, SOLEIL can be used in many various fields such as pharmacy, medicine, chemistry, petrochemistry, environment, nuclear energy, and the automobile industry, as well as nanotechnologies, micromechanics and microelectronics, and more…
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)
HZB in Germany has existed since 2009. Its roots go much further into the past, given that HZB arose from the fusion of two older research institutions, the former Hahn-Meitner-Institut (est. 1959) and BESSY GmbH (est. 1979). With approximately 1,100 employees, HZB is now one of the largest non-university research centres in Berlin, and a member of the Helmholtz Association. HZB conducts research at two locations, in Wannsee and Adlershof.
Materials for a sustainable energy supply and operation of the electron storage ring BESSY II – those are the cornerstones of HZB and its research. Both of these fields complement each other, since questions arising from research continually drive the advancement of the experimental environment at BESSY II and vice versa; the possibilities that BESSY II offers accelerate energy research enormously.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
UKRI works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. We aim to maximise the contribution of each of our component parts, working individually and collectively. We work with our many partners to benefit everyone through knowledge, talent and ideas.
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
STFC is part of UKRI, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. STFC are a world-leading multi-disciplinary science organisation, and their goal is to deliver economic, societal, scientific and international benefits to the UK and its people – and more broadly to the world. Their strength comes from their distinct but interrelated functions:
- Universities: they support university-based research, innovation and skills development in astronomy, particle physics, nuclear physics, and space science
- Scientific Facilities: they provide access to world-leading, large-scale facilities across a range of physical and life sciences, enabling research, innovation and skills training in these areas
- National Campuses: they work with partners to build National Science and Innovation Campuses based around their National Laboratories to promote academic and industrial collaboration and translation of their research to market through direct interaction with industry
- Inspiring and Involving: they help ensure a future pipeline of skilled and enthusiastic young people by using the excitement of their sciences to encourage wider take-up of STEM subjects in school and future life (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
We support an academic community of around 1,700 in particle physics, nuclear physics, and astronomy including space science, who work at more than 50 universities and research institutes in the UK, Europe, Japan and the United States, including a rolling cohort of more than 900 PhD students.
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source is based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire and is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences. It is owned and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source produces beams of neutrons and muons that allow scientists to study materials at the atomic level using a suite of instruments, often described as ‘super-microscopes’. It supports a national and international community of more than 2000 scientists who use neutrons and muons for research in physics, chemistry, materials science, geology, engineering, and biology.
ISIS neutron and muon instruments are free to use for researchers provided the results from experiments are published in the public domain. Fully confidential use of the instruments is also available for industrial and commercial customers.
EGI
EGI is a federated e-Infrastructure set up to provide advanced computing services for research and innovation.
The EGI e-infrastructure is publicly-funded and comprises hundreds of data centres and cloud providers spread across Europe and worldwide.
The federation is coordinated by the EGI Foundation, which has been created to manage the infrastructure on behalf of the EGI Council participants.
The mission of EGI is to create and deliver open solutions for science and research infrastructures by federating digital capabilities, resources and expertise between communities and across national boundaries.