[Date Prev][Date Next][Date Index]
[Neutron] Latest News on ESS
January 24th, 2008
Spain and Hungary reinforce their
candidatures to host the European Spallation Source
More than 20 countries attend today the presentation in
Brussels
A Collaboration Agreement on the European Spallation
Source (ESS) has been launched today by the ESS-Bilbao Consortium
participated by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the
Basque Country Regional Government and the ESS-Hungary Consortium, led
by the Hungarian Ministry of Economy and Transport.
Both Spain and Hungary, while competing to host the Source, have come
together to catalyze the process of establishing and building the
European Spallation Source as defined in the Road-map of the European
Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). The agreement
combines resources and coordinates activities in such a way that the
initial phase of the project can be advanced more effectively and does it
in a manner in which both parties benefit from the collaboration.
The agreement has been presented to the International Community this
morning in Brussels in a Joint Round Table chaired by the Spanish
Secretary of State of Universities and Research, Prof. Miguel Ángel
Quintanilla, and the Hungarian Secretary of State for Economic
Development, Mr. Géza Egyed. The meeting has been attended by the
partcipating countries and the European Comission concerned with the
ESS.
The key points of the cooperation are the following:
- Work together on the design of a cooperative investment plan for the
construction of the ESS facility with the aim of securing an
international agreement to locate the facility at one of the partner
sites.
- As for the preparatory phase the cooperation is realized by
appointing a common joint science director and desinging same scientific/
technological content.
- Establish cost estimates of ESS, which includes the local
infrastructure, agreeing to define a common basis for making these
estimates, and use the same method in both countries to examine the
socio-economic impact of the proposed locations.
- As for the building phase the country realizing ESS is supported by
cash and in kind of the other party and also represented as a strategic
supplier.
- Jointly supported scientific advisory board is also accepted.
In the round tables the afternoon session both candidatures will
expose an overview of their respective site proposals concerning the ESS
project and open a discussion with the attending countries delegates to
exchange views on the Spanish and the Hungarian proposals.
The European Spallation Source is a project to build and operate the
world’s most intense low energy neutron source for studying the structure
and dynamics of materials, having a wide range of scientific and
industrial applications from engineering to life sciences and
aeronautics to pharmaceutics. It is currently one of the largest R&D
infrastructure to be built in Europe during the next 10 years with an
estimated construction cost of 1000 to 1500 M€. Once in fully
operation, the Source could gather more than 4000 researches per year
from all over the world conducting cutting-edge research projects. The
European Commission has selected the ESS as one of the mature projects
included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures’
Road-map.
Due to the international nature of the ESS project, and in view of its
goal to serve a broad community of countries, further support will be
required from other partners both for the construction and operation of
this large scale scientific infrastructure for Europe. In this sense,
both Spain and Hungary pointed out that their agreement is open to
additional countries willing to join.
Dr. Javier CAMPO
ESS-Bilbao Initiative
Phone: +34 646 89 79 76
jcampo@essbilbao.com
www.essbilbao.com
_______________________________________________
Neutron mailing list
Neutron@anl.gov
http://www.neutron.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/neutron