Page 208 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
502 employees, including 105 researchers, and 223 technicians. This recruitment was at a significant cost. In the 1982 budget engagement of 30 staff was FF 1.95M, partially offset by reduction of expenditure on external services, leaving about
FF 0.6M to be taken from the investment budget of the ILL, that is to say from instrument developments.
As I mentioned above the problems posed by the reconstruction of the reactor and the partial withdrawal of the British imposed
a reduction of total staff back to the numbers of 1981, about 420-427. The number of scientists (excluding thesis students) dropped from 72 in 1981 to 56 in 2003.
To achieve the work of the “ Deuxième Souffle ” (Second Wind) the partners offered 12 people on detachment. The constant workforce level over 20 years seems remarkable. It led naturally to relative stability in the budget (excluding the period of the British reductions), and this increased little more than inflation. In 1980 the budget (excluding the Second Wind) was FF 137.6M; in 2002 it was 60 million euros, which corresponds to about
FF 174M in 1980 (according to the INSEE inflation figures). This shows that the budget only grew on average by 1% per year in constant money terms.
The original intergovernmental agreement (1967) creating the ILL was set for a life of 13 years, and it was expected to be extended from year to year by tacit agreement. In fact it has been extended several times, the last time being in 2002 until the end of 2013, i.e. 45 years after creation. [2018 addition: A
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