LEAPS

League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources

News

NEWS from ESUO

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Since November 2020, ESUO, the European Synchrotron and FEL User Organisation has been an official partner of LEAPS. LEAPS General Assembly has endorsed this strategic partnership following a fruitful exchange in elaborating common goals and visions.

ESUO represents about 25 000 users of LEAPS facilities and its vision is to support a thriving (European) synchrotron and FEL user community, working towards equal opportunities for access and participation for all scientists based solely on the scientific merit of their ideas 1.

On April 9th, 2021, the ESUO chair Ullrich Pietsch, together with other ESUO representatives, was invited to attend a dedicated session of the 13th LEAPS General Assembly meeting. This invitation was prepared by the LEAPS task force chaired by Jan Lüning (HZB) during summer 2021, with the aim of defining the common interests of the two organisations and wishes for the LEAPS-ESUO strategic partnership. During the April meeting, ESUO presented proposed ESUO medium-term activities as part of the H2020 European CALIPSOplus project and LEAPS, as elaborated by the ESUO executive committee during the preceding weeks (http://www.esuo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Proposed-medium-term-activities.pdf). The presentation given by the ESUO chair to synchrotron and FEL directors / director representatives was well received and was followed by fruitful exchanges focusing on the role of ESUO in helping LEAPS and the synchrotron and FEL community tackle Grand Challenges, and the collective scientific challenges that LEAPS and ESUO have a common interest in, whereby ESUO can assist in i.e.

(i) identifying specific expert user groups in order to ensure that some specialties / scientific areas are not missed;

(ii) addressing specific Horizon Europe calls, together with LEAPS as part of the LEAPS strategy groups.

ESUO was encouraged by LEAPS to move forward with concrete actions on regional user meetings (outreach), e.g. in countries eligible for widening support. Furthermore, LEAPS offered to help identify users as support to create new national user organisations (NUOs) / regional user organisations (RUOs), if applicable. During that meeting ESUO proposed some ESUO delegates to work in the LEAPS working groups (https://leaps-initiative.eu/about/organisation/) in order to foster exchanges, to propose ideas and to further collaborate with LEAPS as part of such working groups.

Until now Transnational Access (TNA) to CALIPSOplus facilities has been funded by the CALIPSOplus project2. This funding scheme will continue until the end of October 2021. No continuation of funding exists to date, but the perspectives for the users to continue to take advantage of the very fruitful instrument that TNA represents are being discussed and we foresee that this question will be resolved.

Finally, we like to inform readers about current activities to transform ESUO into a legal entity based on Belgian law. The registration is being performed by the current members of the ESUO executive board and is based on a preliminary statute foreseen to be discussed and proposed for approval at the upcoming ESUO general assembly planned in September 2021. 

by Annick Froideval

1 www.wayforlight.eu/en/users/esuo/ and www.esuo.eu

2 www.calipsoplus.eu/

LEAPS-INNOV: launched!

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LEAPS-INNOV has officially started earlier this month and it is already progressing full steam ahead. The project not only brings together all LEAPS partners, but also starts to form much closer relations to industrial partners, which are of major importance for such a technology-driven consortium.

142 participants gathered virtually last week to officially kick-off the project. Two days of presentations and discussions among the nine work packages as well as two closed sessions dedicated to the Executive Board and the Governing Board defined the steps and future program for the next four years. “The goal is to identify different approaches and actions for partnerships with industry in order to develop a strategy for long-term industry engagement for LEAPS on a European level” comments Elke Plönjes, scientific coordinator of LEAPS-INNOV.

The focus remains the implementation of new strategies and activities for long-term partnerships between industry and European light sources, specifically synchrotrons and free electron lasers, with their numerous users, including high-impact industrial applications. It will contribute to solving key technological challenges for over 50 facilities in Europe and worldwide, and, in particular, for the next generation of photon sources, diffraction-limited storage rings and the still novel X-ray FELs. LEAPS-INNOV aspires to strengthen highly specialized European SMEs for the market of light sources worldwide.

Also, LEAPS-INNOV aims to kick-start the implementation of the LEAPS Technology Roadmap. At the same time, the consortium will strive to foster a partnership with European industry through open innovation by offering joint technological developments and advanced research capabilities with LEAPS members for industry as collaborators, supplier and user.

LEAPS and COVID-19: one year later

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It has been more than a year since the world was forced to a halt by the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. While we all have been busy washing our hands, wearing masks and getting used to our new home office routine, the science world has been working non-stop to face the new challenge posed by this virus.

The situation is no different at LEAPS, the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources, which embraced the new challenge and reacted immediately and pragmatically. Despite operations being drastically reduced, all LEAPS member facilities joined forces and offered their expertise and capacities to the scientific community at large. Several facilities opened calls for rapid access to dedicated beam time for prioritizing research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and developing therapies and vaccines against the COVID-19 disease.

Nearly all facilities participating in LEAPS (ALBA, DESY, DIAMOND, ELETTRA, ESRF, EuXFEL, FELIX , HZB, HZDR, INFN, ISA,  MAX IV, PSI, PTB, SOLARIS and SOLEIL) have been offering remote access to their equipment for COVID-19-related research practically from the beginning of the pandemic. Some could remain in user operation all through the pandemic by having settled remote access tools, offering mail-in and encouraging users to reduce team sizes and use mail-in and remote access.

Advanced experiments and measurements have been carried out in a multidisciplinary approach, in terms of understanding the virus and developing effective antiviral drugs. Many techniques were involved such as macromolecular crystallography to study the structure of viral components and its interactions with potential antiviral drugs, x-ray imaging to determine the 3D structure of the virus and understand the effects of the virus on human organs, cryo-electron microscopy and many more.

 “This year has confirmed the wide-ranging talents and infrastructures within LEAPS and its member facilities” – states Caterina Biscari, Chair of LEAPS and Director of ALBA Synchrotron in Spain. Through their front-line engagement and the promotion of cooperation activities such as the “Learning to run again” webinar, as well as the endorsement of the EU COVID-19 manifesto and the participation in similar webinars , LEAPS facilities have once again demonstrated their crucial role in the European science and innovation world.

“During these difficult times, LEAPS facilities have been supporting each other by sharing visions and technologies in a complementary way “ says Mirjam van Daalen, Vice Chair of the LEAPS Coordination Board and Director of Communications a.i. at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. “Within LEAPS, we also developed a common paper on the research on COVID-19“- concludes van Daalen.

LEAPS has proven to be dedicated to its mission and act as a powerful tool for the development and integration of skills with a view to address 21st century global challenges, and to consolidate Europe’s leadership in the field.

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A list of experiments and publications on the new Coronavirus by each LEAPS facility has been added below. Additionally,a regularly updated list of publications on SARS-CoV-2 by LEAPS members and other synchrotron and FEL facilities around the globe can be found at lightsources.org. Lightsources.org is the result of the collaboration between communicators from light source facilities around the world.

From LEAPS associate partners overseas:

The Canadian Light Source (Canada) has created a specific page highlighting their COVID-19 research: COVID-19 research at the Canadian Light Source