LEAPS

League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources

News

4th LEAPS Plenary Meeting

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The 4th LEAPS Plenary Meeting offered an exciting agenda to share the latest of the LEAPS collaboration. The meeting focused on the new LEAPS strategy and LEAPS contribution to the new European Research Area, aspects which were discussed with participants from the EC as well as partner projects like ExPaNDS and PaNoSC. 

An update was given on LEAPS pilot project LEAPS-INNOV as well as on several other proposals, which are in the pipeline. A session was dedicated to DIGITAL LEAPS , triggered by the wish to increasing the resilience to times of crisis. “This program is a hotbed of developments towards greener and more efficient environments for our staff, users and industrial partners”, explains Caterina Biscari, Chair of LEAPS.

LEAPS IDEA, the taskforce dedicated to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-discrimination was also present with the newly published Toolbox of Best Practices of the various LEAPS member facilities. From now on, the IDEA topics will have a dedicated moment within the future LEAPS Plenary Meetings. The series of seminars started with a talk on the “Science of Inclusion”  by expert S. Estradé.

This three-day meeting demonstrated once again how strong, collaborative and productive the LEAPS team is, despite the recent challenges. “Sharing experiences and best practices, building-up solutions, learning from difficulties, opening to other communities, has made our links stronger” concluded Biscari.

News from ESUO

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16th ESUO General Assembly

The 16th ESUO General Assembly – a hybrid in-person and online meeting – occurred on October 18th-19th of 2021, physically and virtually hosted by the DESY (www.desy.de) and European XFEL (www.xfel.eu) facilities. The successful meeting was made possible thanks to the support of the local DESY and European XFEL teams and financial support of the European H2020 CALIPSOplus project. The chair of ESUO, Ullrich Pietsch reported to user delegates on the transformation of ESUO into an international non-profit organisation (AISBL) under Belgian law, with the previously agreed new statutes of association. A short report can be found here: https://www.esuo.eu/16th-esuo-general-assembly-of-18th-and-19th-october-2021/.

Election of new ESUO Executive Board and President

The ESUO general assembly and voting national user delegates elected a new Executive Board and President. The new board comprises Carla Bittencourt (BE), Federico Boscherini (IT), Tom Hase (UK), Rainer Lechner (AT), Derek Logan (SE), Bridget Murphy (DE) and Moniek Tromp (NL) and the newly elected ESUO President Cormac McGuinness (IE).

ESUO participation in the 4th LEAPS Plenary Meeting and LEAPS General Assembly

The new ESUO President and former ESUO chair, Cormac McGuinness and Ullrich Pietsch, respectively, together with other ESUO representatives, were invited to attend the 4th LEAPS plenary meeting held as an online event on October 20th-22nd, 2021. ESUO delegates observed and participated in LEAPS public and internal sessions, including dedicated working / strategy group meetings on days 1 and 2; the new ESUO president and former ESUO chair both attended the LEAPS general assembly on day 3 where ESUO was welcomed as a new strategic partner. ESUO contribute to several LEAPS working / strategy groups; e.g. Moniek Tromp being co-chair of LEAPS strategy group 1 on storage rings and member of the LEAPS research development board and further ESUO delegates contributing to LEAPS working groups 1 and 3-6 and the new Taskforce on Strategic Access.

During the LEAPS general assembly meeting, the important topics under discussion included the new European Commission Research Infrastructures funding landscape, the benefits of Transnational Access (TNA) as previously funded e.g. through the CALIPSOplus project (www.calipsoplus.eu/trans-national-access/) as well as the future prospects for users to take advantage of both challenge-driven and curiosity driven topics under Horizon Europe. The new ESUO President emphasised the continued need to embrace “geographic equality” in opportunities for all European scientists as the diversity of users provides a vibrant synchrotron and FEL research infrastructure landscape.

ESUO user survey on impact of absence of TNA

In September 2021 ESUO launched a survey to address the important issue of possible impacts of absence of TNA funding support on the user community; The survey will remain open until the end of February 2022. Please provide your input to that short survey: how will absence of TNA affect you?  Details and access to the survey are at: www.esuo.eu/possible-impacts-of-the-absence-of-transnational-access-funding-support-for-the-user-community/

ESUO is also contributing to the 3rd and final CALIPSOplus periodic report due December 2021. 

You can follow ESUO on both Twitter (https://twitter.com/ESUO11) and on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/esuo). Keep up to date and informed on our activities, and obtain news on relevant user issues by these channels, or contact your ESUO national user delegate.

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ESUO Board: Main photo (from left) Rainer Lechner, Cormac McGuinness, Derek Logan and Tom Hase. Insets (clockwise from top left): Bridget Murphy, Carla Bittencourt, Moniek Tromp and Federico Boscherini.

PSI is the new Chair of LEAPS

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The symbolic hand-over of the LEAPS Chair for 2022 from Caterina Biscari, ALBA, to Leonid (Lenny) Rivkin, PSI.

As of January 1st 2022, LEAPS will have a new chair: former vice-chair Leonid (Lenny) Rivkin, Deputy  Director of the Paul Scherrer Institut (CH). The symbolic LEAPS baton was handed over to him by the outgoing chair Caterina Biscari, Director of ALBA, today in Barcelona, where many LEAPS directors gathered for the last General Assembly of the year.

“It is a privilege to be part of LEAPS, which is an essential player in the responsibility we have towards the future generations for a sustainable and enjoyable world, ” commented Caterina.

Today, the General Assembly of LEAPS and a few additional LEAPS members met in Barcelona to discuss and plan LEAPS future activities.

LEAPS in Barcelona
Members of the General Assembly at work today in Barcelona

The last two years have been challenging but, as it is often the case, from challenges comes inspiration and growth. LEAPS members have embraced these challenges together to continue to be productive and to shape the future of the European RIs landscape. “I look forward to an exciting year of activities and new projects that will strengthen the collaboration even more, “ says Lenny Rivkin, new Chair of LEAPS.

“I’d like to thank the whole community for the great work done. In particular the group of Chairs and support people to whom goes all my gratitude. I am looking forward to continuing to contribute under the chairmanship of Lenny,” continued Caterina.