Large research infrastructure at the service of industry: services, case studies and future prospects in the neutron source field

1/5      ph. Foto Rolli

On October 25th, the representatives of twelve companies operating in a number of sectors participated in the workshop “Large research infrastructure at the service of industry,” organised by AREA Science Park and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste as part of the Open Lab and BrightnESS projects. Through the first-hand accounts of companies and researchers involved in collaboration projects, the meeting illustrated the huge potential offered by the invaluable technological assets of such infrastructure in supporting industrial R&D. In particular, the spotlight was focussed on ESS, the future neutron spallation source, which is currently under construction and is expected to go into operation in 2019 in Lund, Sweden. After the greetings by Stephen Taylor, ‎Director of Marketing, Communications and Business Development at AREA Science Park, the meeting was opened by Marco Peloi, Industrial Liaison Office Manager at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and moderator of the event, who illustrated the potential of synchrotron light for the world of business. The presentations that followed all met with the great interest of the audience, including the use of imaging technologies applied to the analysis of polyurethane foams (a joint Open Lab project between AEP Polymers Srl and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste), the use of micro- and nanotechnology applied to microbiology (a joint Open Lab project between Alifax srl, Udine, and CNR-IOM Istituto Officina dei Materiali), and the latest generation technologies of the European Spallation Source. Toward the end of the meeting, the spotlight was turned to ESS, proposed through the BrightnESS project, to prepare industries to seize the opportunities that will become available in the next few years in Europe with the launch of this new research infrastructure. Once completed, ESS will be the most powerful existing source of neutrons and will open new avenues in the field of multidisciplinary research into applications ranging from biomedicine, through superconductors, to energy and the environment.