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The United Kingdom’s national research facility ISIS has been praised as innovative and world leading by an international panel.

“Coming after Peter Higgs’ Nobel Prize, this review by an international panel of experts further reinforces the UK’s position as ‘the’ place to do science globally,” STFC Chief Executive Professor John Womersley said.

ISIS is a national facility for research into a broad range of physical and life sciences, using the techniques of neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy to study materials at the atomic level.

“STFC operates ISIS, and our other user-facilities, on behalf of the entire research base and we have a responsibility built into our Strategy to sustain research excellence and leadership. Internationally benchmarking our facilities is one way to ensure we’re delivering the absolute best for UK science,” Professor Womersley said.

The international panel was chaired by Professor Dr Joel Mesot, Director of Switerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute, and included representatives from the United States, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK.

“ISIS operations are providing an excellent capability to the user community, and are certainly world class,” the Panel’s report said.

The Panel was particularly impressed with the drive for continuous improvement embedded within ISIS operations.

“ISIS has, since its creation, been able to create a culture of innovation that has had profound impact on and will continue to change the way neutron scattering is performed worldwide. Very few research institutions have demonstrated similar drives toward innovation and spread of the resulting technological development,” the Panel said.

The Panel found that ISIS, although a nationally funded facility, compared favourably in all aspects to other neutron sources operated and funded as international facilities.

Panel members based their statement on a “benchmarking comparison” including number of experiments conducted per ISIS beam line, the number of scientific publications per beam line, and the percentage of publications judged worthy of publication in so-called “high impact” publications.

Professor Womersley said the Panel had made several recommendations in relation to budgets, international cooperation, and enhanced synergies with other STFC Facilities.

“STFC thanks the Panel for their report, in particular for their unambiguous confirmation of the excellence and cost effectiveness of the ISIS facility. The Director of ISIS Professor Robert McGreevy and all his staff can be very proud of their contribution to the UK,” Professor Womersley said.

He said STFC would look for ways to better exploit the internal synergies identified by the Panel, and will carefully consider the recommendation in relation to expanding international cooperation. Decisions about funding for ISIS are dependent on the outcome of Government budget considerations.

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About STFC

The Science and Technology Facilities Council is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security.

The Council has a broad science portfolio and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, microelectronics, wafer scale manufacturing, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production, radio communications and radar.

STFC operates or hosts world class experimental facilities including:

• in the UK
  • ISIS pulsed neutron source
  • the Central Laser Facility
  • LOFAR. 
  • STFC is also the majority shareholder in Diamond Light Source Ltd.
• overseas
  • telescopes on La Palma and Hawaii

It enables UK researchers to access leading international science facilities by funding membership of international bodies including European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).  STFC is one of seven publicly-funded research councils.  It is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Follow us on Twitter at @STFC_Matters

www.stfc.ac.uk

About ISIS

ISIS is a world-leading centre for research in physical and life sciences operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK. ISIS produces beams of neutrons and muons that allow scientists to study materials at the atomic level using a suite of instruments, often described as a set of ‘super-microscopes’. ISIS supports an international community of over 2000 scientists who use neutrons and muons for research in physics, chemistry, materials science, geology, engineering and biology. It is the most productive research centre of its type in the world.

www.isis.stfc.ac.uk