[Neutron] Latest News on ESS

[Javier Campo]

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 at essbilbao.com
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