[Neutron]£100.4 million funding announced for ISIS Second Target Station Project

[Bull, MJ (Martyn)]

BM_8_April_2003£100 million for world leading new science project
Go ahead given for extension to neutron facility in Oxfordshire

 <http://www.dti.gov.uk/> DTI News Release
 
<http://www.gnn.gov.uk/gnn/national.nsf/TI/15C805D19BBA41BD80256D02004ADE9A?
opendocument> P/2003/243
8 April 2003


The UK's world-beating neutron centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,
near Didcot, is to get one of the largest ever awards of Government funding
for a single science project, Science Minister Lord Sainsbury announced
today.


The DTI is giving over £100 million to fund a brand new wing at the ISIS
<http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk/targetstation2/> neutron laboratory. This
expansion will help scientists working on the next generation of
environmentally friendly technologies, super-fast computers, data storage,
and sensors, as well as pharmaceutical and medical breakthroughs.

Lord Sainsbury, Science and Innovation Minister said:

"This £100 million for the ISIS laboratory is a key part of our investment
strategy in major facilities for scientists in this country. It will keep
the UK at the forefront of neutron research for many years.

"The UK is a leader in the world in science and the development of new
technologies, and it is vital that this continues, both for the benefits
science and technology brings to the population, and the economic prosperity
of this country. For this reason we are committed to sustained funding for
scientific research and facilities. By 2005-06 the science budget will reach
just short of £3 billion - more than double the figure in 1997-1998."

The current neutron facility, or 'target station', at ISIS is the most
powerful neutron producer of its kind in the world, but it is fully
developed and cannot expand to meet the capacity required by the scientific
community. The second target station will offer unique equipment, and will
maintain ISIS as a world-class facility for many years.

Scientists use the ISIS facility to study the structure and dynamics of
matter, and it is needed for a broad spectrum of disciplines including
physics, chemistry, biotechnology, and materials science. The development of
'targeted medicine delivery', which aims to reduce the side-effects of
medical treatments, is just one example of the kind of research that
benefits from work done at ISIS.

This investment is part of a 'UK Strategy for neutrons', which is being
released for consultation today by the Council for the Central Laboratory of
the Research Councils (CCLRC). This UK Strategy in the near term consists of
completing the ISIS second target station and upgrading the facilities in
the Institut Laue Langevin, a UK/French/German neutron facility in Grenoble,
France. In the medium term, the strategy sees the need for an even more
highly powered neutron source within Europe.

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