Science and Technology Facilities Council
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Ground-breaking for ground-breaking science
Construction is now (2/9/2014) officially underway on the world’s biggest microscope: the £1.4 billion European Spallation Source being built in Sweden with key British input.
The UK is a major partner in the 17-nation ESS consortium, and will contribute around 10 per cent of the construction costs.
“The ESS is one of the largest science and technology infrastructure projects of the decade. Using neutrons to examine the structure of matter, the ESS will help scientists in a huge array of applications – from medical research to new materials, better drugs to longer-lasting batteries, safer and more secure transport and much more,” said Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the UK’s big science funding body STFC.
When completed early in the next decade, ESS will complement Britain’s own world-leading neutron source ISIS, at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell, Oxford.
“The Swedish government recognises that British expertise developed at ISIS is going to be crucial for the successful design, construction and operation of the ESS. Sweden will help fund ongoing work at ISIS, and I’m delighted that British engineers, technicians and scientists will be able to work with their Swedish and Danish counterparts and other European partners on this exciting project,” Professor Womersley said.
He was speaking after representing the UK at the ESS ground-breaking ceremony in Lund, Sweden on the 2nd September 2014.
