These give additional opportunities for researchers from partner countries to use our neutron and muon instruments, and also provide additional resources, such as instrument upgrades, which benefit the whole ISIS user community. ISIS Neutron and Muon Sources' international partnerships currently include:
Italy: One of ISIS' longest collaborations, since 1984, is with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy. The agreement was renewed in 2014 for 6 years. This partnership has included development of many ISIS instruments including Prisma, Tosca, Vesuvio, INES (which is operated by CNR), Sandals, and, most recently, Nimrod, IMAT and ChipIr on TS2. The collaboration also now includes working with CNR to deliver in-kind contributions to ESS instruments.
More on our collaboration with Italy...
Japan: ISIS has had many agreements with Japan over the years, the longest-standing of which is the partnership with
RIKEN in Japan for operation of the RIKEN-RAL Muon Facility. The first agreement for this collaboration was signed in 1990, and has now been renewed three further times. In addition, Japan (RIKEN, KEK,
JAEA) has partnered ISIS in the building of Mari, Maps and GEM neutron instruments.
More on our collaboration with Japan...
India: India became the first ISIS international partner with an agreement signed in 1983 contributing to development of one of the very first ISIS instruments, IRIS. In 2016 ISIS signed a new agreement with the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), through the NanoMission of the Department of Science and Technology, for collaboration between UK and Indian scientists in neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy. This includes contributions to the Zoom instrument on TS2.
More on our collaboration with India...
Sweden: The first agreement with the Swedish Research Council (VR) was signed in 1988. Recent agreements include contributions to Polaris and IMAT coordinated through Chalmers Technical University. In 2014 the partnership was significantly expanded to assist Sweden in developing its user community in preparation for future ESS operation through a combination of facility access and joint projects. The increased number of users is now clearly visible.
More on our collaboration with Sweden...
The Netherlands: The ISIS – Netherlands agreement, funded by the
NWO and implemented through the Reactor Institute of the Technical University Delft (RID), builds on the long standing expertise at RID in the development and use of polarised neutron instruments. This has contributed to the unique capabilities of the Offspec and Larmor instruments on TS2.
More on our collaboration with The Netherlands...
Other international projects and collaborations
LENS and other European projects: ISIS has been an active participant in EU projects related to neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy since the 1990’s, including, currently, the
BrightnESS-2 project run by the ESS.
ISIS is a founding member and currently the chair of the League of advanced European Neutron Sources, LENS, a not-for-profit consortium working to promote cooperation between European-level neutron infrastructure providers offering transnational user programs to external researchers.
ISIS has a wide variety of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with other research facilities and organisations around the world including with the China Spallation Neutron Source, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin in Germany, the Institut Laue Langevin in France, the European Spallation Source in Sweden and the Neutron Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US.
ISIS also received funding from the UK government's
Newton programme, enabling skills development and capacity-building to improve the ability of researchers from South Africa (2015-16), China and India (2014–18) and Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand (2018 - 2020) to undertake and disseminate scientific research in order to maximise its impact on the issues of poverty and economic growth. Funding for this programme has now ended.
