Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FILL2030 (The Future of ILL 2030)

Teaser

ILL operates the most intense reactor source of neutrons in the world and it is the world leading centre for neutron science and technology. However, neutron scattering in Europe faces a period of major transition in the landscape of operating neutron research facilities. The...

Summary

ILL operates the most intense reactor source of neutrons in the world and it is the world leading centre for neutron science and technology. However, neutron scattering in Europe faces a period of major transition in the landscape of operating neutron research facilities. The ILL must develop and adopt a new, sustainable business model to carry it through to at least 2030.

ILL has to establish an operating budget from a wide range of partners. Engagement of new funding bodies is connected to engaging new user groups - a modern user service model and a financial stakeholder model are therefore inseparable parts of the sustainable business model. Therefore, the primary objective of FILL2030 is to define a sustainable business model. With FILL2030, ILL aims to use the full technical capacity of its facilities, to develop the demand for experiments at ILL and to be able to operate at full capacity of 200 days.

Within the reporting period, priority areas of future engagement in potential scientific growth areas and national communities were identified. While the results of the bibliometric study will be exploited in the second half of the project, countries to be targeted with priority have been identified. Country-specific data on users, experiments and their generated impact, the demonstration of the impact of their investment in ILL, and the created scientific outreach decisions on the renewal of existing memberships or a future membership. The material developed during the project is used to fulfil requests from stakeholders for statistical material supporting their decision processes.

Concerning the development of the service package, user guidance through the application process is being improved. Five additional scientists have been hired for the project in order to facilitating user support at ILL, selected for ILLs instrument groups that were identified as main scientific topics. They act as “ambassadors” for ILL and free capacity for experienced scientists for a better guidance for new, unexperienced users. This approach has been successfully tested at the first reactor cycles in 2018. New users are identified in the application process and supported by dedicated local (ILL) contact persons. A feedback loop guarantees the adaption to changing needs and expectations in the future, where necessary and appropriate. Conference participation of ILL scientists were consequently used to promote ILLs capabilities to scientific communities.

ILLs’ presence at industry related events aim at reinforcing ILLs’ relations to industry. To foster industry participation as users, the legal frameworks for industrial users were improved and facilitated, along with efforts to attract industry as partners.

Work performed

To develop new funding models for new services and markets, a new contractual framework for Scientific Members was installed. This new framework is used for the ongoing negotiations with existing and new Scientific Members. Furthermore, the contractual framework for industrial partners a contract model for service contracts have been revised, reducing administrative barriers.

The launch of the new ILL website with its new design and structure helped to promote in the best way the next communication activities: promotion of data DOIs, implementation of country-specific web-platforms, and enlarged communication activities towards social media animation.

Press releases, activities on social media, webportals, workshops and conferences were implemented or attended, reaching out to new communities and potential users, or federating and strengthening links with existing national user groups. Outcomes of events were highlighted with press activities in order to enhance their impact across pan-European media. A website for the FILL2030 project was created, displaying its objectives, on-going activities, and achievements.

In order to provide ILL scientific management information to monitor the scientific trends and impacts of scientific work, tools were developed that match semi-automatically experiments and their publications. This suite of applications allows extracting relevant data from various documents. The tool uses matching algorithms to determine which documents are equivalent.

Support for users could be enhanced with the recruitment of five post-doc scientists. The additional scientists allow to enhance the service especially to new, unexperienced users in proposal writing, experiments and analysis of experimental data. First experiences from the first two reactor cycles in 2018 are currently evaluated.

New users which are not familiar with neutron techniques have now the possibility to directly access to a dedicated webpage. There, they can find essential information to identify the potential benefit of neutron scattering experiments for their research and are guided to different possible access schemes, contact persons or to a “hotline” dedicated to new users. Ways to enhance support for industrial users prior, during and after experiments were explored based on existing experiences with industrial customers. First results show that high know-how of and excellent support by ILLs scientists is the essential unique feature that attracts industrial users.

During the reporting period, one proposal round was organized. Two proposals from new users from two non-member countries were identified to be eligible within the framework of FILL2030. Both addressing a scientific case in soft condensed matter. FILL2030 covered the beam fee for a total of 13 days, on a total of 4 instruments.

Final results

Neutrons are unique as probes into matter; they can reveal what other techniques cannot see. They therefore provide a powerful tool for investigating the natural world and have long played a role at the forefront of modern scientific research. Neutrons today provide answers to many questions in science, from the evolution of the Universe to the mechanisms underlying complex natural phenomena.

The ILL has been performing experiments at the cutting edge of research for more than 40 years now, in fields as varied as molecular biology, chemistry, fundamental physics, materials science and the environment. To maintain and improve ILLs capability to provide world-class instrumentation and services is important for Europe given the fact that the landscape of neutron sources is undergoing a major change. Especially Europe’s strong and very active user community will be affected by this change, endangering Europe’s capability to address scientific questions in societal challenges. Materials research with neutrons is indispensable to address these challenges.

The main impact of FILL2030 can only be achieved by demonstrating ILLs’ scientific performance and attractiveness for its existing as well as prospective new partners one hand, and to its scientific users from academia and industry on the other hand.

The results so far contribute significantly to reach these ambitious goals. The outreach activities, provided data and statistics, activities and provided access schemes to novice users of the project can foster positive decisions towards partnerships and exploitation of ILLs instrumentation and services, allowing users from ILL’s partner countries to benefit from ILLs services and experimental facilities also in future. Until the end of the project, we expect to fully achieve the goals of the project and maintain ILL as the world-leading research centre.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.fill2030.eu/.