Our former Associate, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC has in recent years provided a number of large grants towards the improvement of public instruments on the ILL's High Flux European Neutron Source, boosting the existing contributions from our multi-national partners towards ILL's Millenniumm programme. These projects - super-D2B, D19-detector, SALSA strain scanner, Fame38 Engineering laboratory, D-Lab Deuteration laboratory - have now started to provide their first results. To celebrate the coming to fruition of these investments, and to mark the passing of the UK Associate's baton from EPSRC to CCLRC*, we plan to hold a 2-3 day meeting 26-28 May 2005. The first results will then be available for all of these projects, and we would hope to be already starting a new scientific application phase using the Fame38 infrastructure.
Spring in the French Alps is a magical time; the sun is starting to melt the snow on the
mountains surrounding Grenoble. You can still find easy skiing, but you can also sit outside
in your shirtsleeves, sipping your coffee, soaking up the sun, and planning your next
experiment. The ILL reactor will have been running almost non-stop since the middle of February,
and will continue until early August, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing without fail
lots of good data in chemistry, physics and biology. The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
next door will be preparing to restart. The new building for the Partnership in Structural Biology
with the neighbouring European Molecular Biology Laboratory will soon be operational, and the new ILL
building to replace the famous "ILLton" will be well underway.
Grenoble in Spring will again be at the heart of European science and technology, with ILL users and instrument scientists alike celebrating their contributions to this New Europe, building on the rich heritage of the Old. This is also a good time to show the world how ILL Grenoble can be further developed by relatively small investments in key areas of the Millennium programme. These new projects will benefit the whole of European neutron science and technology, and help attract new European partners to ILL - partners who are equal but individual, each with their own special contribution.
These WWW pages will grow as the planning of the conference proceeds. Come back soon, and plan now to come back to Grenoble in Spring 2005 !
*CCLRC - UK Council for the Central Laboratories of the Research Councils.