ASTRID, ASTRID2 and their "colleagues" LEAPS forward in new collaborative EU-initiative
Time is running out for the EU support for development of accelerator based light sources, but a new collaboration has been launched.
Accelerator based photon sources, synchrotrons and recently also free-electron lasers, have had a huge impact on science across Europe and worldwide, as they have enabled research from chemistry, biology and physics to energy, medicine, cultural heritage and engineering to be carried out on samples in the tiniest detail. The EU has for many years supported several large projects to develop these sources, also providing funds for transnational access to the facilities.
A peek down at ASTRID2
Our local sources, ASTRID and ASTRID2 has been a member of this community for many years. The last of these EU projects, CalipsoPlus, is currently in its first year of a four year programme. By EU standards, the light sources have become a mature and advanced community, which is now supposed to be self-sustainable, therefore no more Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives for the light sources can expect EU funding. Hence a new initiative, League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources, LEAPS, https://www.leaps-initiative.eu/, was launched in Brussels on the 13thof November 2017, in the presence of Robert-Jan Smits, Director General for Research and Innovation (RTD) at the European Commission. LEAPS aims to offer a steep change in European co-operation, through a common vision of enabling scientific excellence solving global challenges, and boosting European competitiveness and integration.