The new agreement builds on the long-term VR-ISIS partnership – one of ISIS's longest-standing international relationships. During the past eight years, over 100 Swedish researchers from 20 institutions have used ISIS for materials investigations across a broad range of areas. Their studies span from cancer-causing proteins, antimicrobial resistance and understanding cell death in our bodies, to polymer composites, the carbon cycle in soil and welding methods for advanced engineering alloys.
The five-year agreement, signed in London on 21 January, will see Swedish scientists using ISIS in collaboration with UK researchers, joint projects between the UK and Sweden for neutron instrumentation development, shared PhD students and other activities aimed at supporting the UK and Swedish research communities.
Roger Eccleston, STFC Executive Director Large Scale Facilities, signed the agreement on behalf of STFC. “We are very proud of our partnership with Sweden, and excited to be taking it into a further phase through this new agreement", he commented. “Swedish researchers gain access to the advanced facilities provided by ISIS, and the UK benefits from Swedish scientific and technological expertise."
Katarina Bjelke, Director General of the Swedish Research Council, explained, “The European Spallation Source, a next-generation neutron facility currently being constructed in Sweden, will soon be ready for first science. Our ongoing partnership with ISIS will enable Swedish and UK scientists to take full advantage of both ISIS and this new facility once it is also operational, through our continued development of scientific and technical expertise in the use of neutron scattering for advanced materials studies."
Further information:
The ISIS Neutron and Muon Source is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences. It produces intense beams of neutrons and muons that enable materials to be studied at the atomic and molecular level, offering insights that other techniques cannot. The facility provides researchers with access to a suite of instruments, each optimised for studying different properties of matter. Science at the facility spans a very broad range, from chemistry and catalysis to engineering components; cell membranes to battery materials; drug delivery mechanisms to microelectronics; geological investigations to archaeological studies. ISIS serves a community of several thousand academic and industrial researchers from the UK and overseas.
For further information, please contact the ISIS Communications and Impact team: ISISimpact@stfc.ac.uk or visit www.isis.stfc.ac.uk.
The Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet is the largest public funding body for research at Swedish universities and higher education institutions. It funds research within all scientific disciplines by issuing calls for grant applications in open competition. Each year, the approximately 900 researchers who sit on their review panels deal with about 6 000 research applications. They award almost 8 billion SEK per year to fund Swedish research.
In order to provide Swedish research with the best possible prerequisites, the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet fund research infrastructure both in Sweden and abroad. Research infrastructures are advanced tools that researchers may need in order to carry out their research. Examples include databases, research facilities, biobanks and large-scale computational tools. The funding is always based on the needs of Swedish research.
