LEAPS

League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources

News

LEAPS Plenary Meeting 2023

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A month to go to the 6th LEAPS Plenary Meeting! Near 150 participants signed up to attend the event, at SOLEIL in France. The program will include an interesting mix of scientific and policy oriented contributions from key players in the Research Infrastructure landscape. Two Public Sessions will take place on October 19, including a diverse set of prominent thought leaders from academia and policy on the topic of socio-economic impact of research infrastructures.

The Plenary Meeting includes also a LEAPS internal day, October 18, with parallel and joint sessions where the strategic work carried on within the working and strategic groups and task forces will be presented and discussed. On the last day of the event, October 20, the LEAPS General Assembly and Coordination Board will be held.

For more information about the event please visit the LEAPS Plenary Meeting 2023 website:

https://indico.synchrotron-soleil.fr/event/60/

LEAPS lobbying at the Swedish Presidency Event in Lund

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LEAPS participated on June 21st in the events organized as part of the Swedish Presidency week in Lund, Sweden. Over 200 participants of the EU Conference “The Potential of Research Data: How Research Infrastructures Provide New Opportunities and Benefits for Society” toured MAX IV and ESS and met with scientific staff and management for presentations and questions on the research activities of these research infrastructures .

LEAPS was one of the stations in the Max IV facility tour (see photos below). Both LEAPS Chair Jean Daillant and Brita Redlich could present LEAPS activities and goals to a range of governmental representatives, EU ministers, policymakers and delegates, scientific speakers, and guests attended the events. Among the guest was Marc Lemaître, Directorate-General of the Research and Innovation (DG RTD) Directorate of the European Commission. Jean and Britta had a brief but important discussion with Lemaître and could brief the director about LEAPS and the importance of its members joining forces to progress European research and innovation.

“European research Infrastructures play an important role in the development of next generation technologies to better our world. We support our European research communities and industries to drive change through innovative ideas and discoveries. Together, we have the scientific ingenuity and advanced instruments to solve some of society’s greatest challenges,” said Olof Karis, Director of MAX IV.

LEAPS GA and CB members also joined the events and interacted with high-level EU representatives and for the LEAPS General Assembly held on June 22 at MAX IV.

Other high-level meetings took place during the week in Lund as the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC), the attachés to the Working Party of Research, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the ESS Council, as well as the LEAPS General Assembly on June 22.

LEAPS is grateful to MAX IV, its Director Olof Karis, Franz Hennies, Head of User Officer, and their teams for hosting LEAPS and providing the opportunity for the Consortium to get more visibility and lobbying at EU level.

Inauguration of BEATS, the BEAmline for Tomography at SESAME

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BEATS, the fifth beamline at the SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) synchrotron was ceremoniously inaugurated on 6 June 2023. SESAME, operating since 2017, is an intergovernmental laboratory located near Amman (Jordan) and the only synchrotron facility in the Middle East and neighbouring regions.

SESAME announced that on Thursday, 11th May 2023, at 16:48, a group of its engineers and scientists successfully delivered the first X-ray photon beam to the experimental station of the BEATS (BEAmline for Tomography at SESAME) beamline. During the experiment, more than 1000 X-ray radiographic images of a rotating test sample were obtained in only 12 seconds by one of the beamline detectors. The data was collected and reconstructed by the high-performance computing facility specifically designed for the beamline and installed at SESAME in 2022, thus allowing the generation of a 3D image of the object. 

The BEATS beamline will provide full-field X-ray radiography and tomography: two powerful and non-destructive techniques for 3D imaging and analysis of a large variety of objects and materials. With its non-destructive approach, this new beamline will deliver virtual volume images that are particularly important for the Cultural Heritage and Archaeological communities. The characterization of the 3D internal microstructure offered by tomography, is also of paramount importance for an exhaustive understanding of other materials, objects, and organisms. The BEATS beamline may be used in a large range of scientific and technological applications ranging from medicine, biology, engineering, and materials science to earth and planetary sciences, thus representing a key asset for researchers in the SESAME region.

The layout of the SESAME BEATS beamline was inspired by the tomography beamline at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) and is fully optimized for absorption and phase contrast imaging. Particular attention was given to preserving the coherence of the X-rays. The X-ray source is a 3T 3-pole wiggler, which significantly increases the photon flux at X-ray energies up to 80 keV, necessary for the investigation of a broad variety of materials and samples. 

“We were euphoric observing the first 3D images of BEATS only a few minutes after starting our tests […]” said the BEATS beamline scientist, Gianluca Iori. “It was the realization of four years of hard work, which made everyone at SESAME extremely proud.”  

The beamline was designed and built thanks to a European project that brought together leading research facilities in the Middle East (SESAME and The Cyprus Institute), and European synchrotron radiation facilities: ALBA-CELLS (Spain), DESY (Germany), Elettra (Italy), the ESRF (France), INFN (Italy), PSI (Switzerland) and SOLARIS (Poland). The initiative has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project was coordinated by the ESRF.

The first opportunity to submit a proposal to use the BEATS beamline will be in September 2023. Read more on the SESAME website.

Dignitaries formally inaugurate BEATS. Cutting the ribbon are (left to right):  Prof. Azmi Mahafzah, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Jordan, SESAME Director, Khaled Toukan and H.E. Ms Maria Hadjitheodosiou, Ambassador of the European Union to Jordan.