Page 242 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
were made possible through special national French funding the CPER (“Contrat de Plan Etat-Régions”); this showed that indeed the activities at ILL and ESRF were important to the French authorities. In return, the main partner countries of ILL (and ESRF), whose scientists have benefitted also from these projects, were reassured by the financial commitments borne by local authorities. A second CPER finance plan for the years 2016 to 2020 is helping with the funding of the most recent upgrade and maintenance programme (Endurance) described above.
11.4.3 Science - staying at the cutting-edge
The ILL has always been the site of an active scientific life. The gains in sensitivity and accuracy induced by the recent upgrade programmes, Millennium and, most recently, Endurance, have expanded the breadth of the research performed at the ILL. Since around 2000, societal relevance and impact have become of increasing importance at ILL and in research in general. Neutrons provide a range of key methods in societally relevant research. The ILL’s User communities and scientific staff adapted to this new environment, thanks to the newly created support facilities (D-Lab, C-Lab, PSB and PSCM ...)132. In recent years there has been significant growth in a number of areas of applied sciences, notably in materials science, cultural sciences, and engineering (strain-stress measurements, the principal area of industrial
132 D-Lab: Deuteration Lab <www.ill.eu/D-Lab>, C-Lab: Computation Lab <www.ill.eu/C-Lab>, PSB: Partner- ship for Structural Biology <www.psb-grenoble.eu>, PSCM: Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter <www. epn-campus.eu/pscm>
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