An update from LENS: General Assembly and Council Meeting
Over two days of informative and productive meetings, representatives from LENS and the wider neutron scattering community met online to discuss current and future goals of the initiative, in the context of the broader European research landscape.
On 17 February, LENS welcomed the international neutron scattering community to find out more about the collaboration’s activities as part of the General Assembly. The half-day meeting, which was the first open General Assembly since 2019, was attended by nearly 200 participant from over 15 countries worldwide.
Opening the meeting, LENS Chair, Robert McGreevy, set the stage for the day’s meeting with a brief report on the general neutron landscape in Europe. Robert also shared key updates from member facilities, and explained the impact of the pandemic on the collaboration’s overall activity.
Robert then introduced a series of talks from LENS’ Working Groups, which included work in industry outreach, developments in hardware and data, efforts in communication and promotion, and an update on submissions to Horizon Europe calls. (A copy of the presentations can be found below.) There was excellent engagement from participants throughout the meeting.
Continued below.
Robert McGreevy
General update on the LENS Initiative and the neutron landscape in Europe
Marc Thiry
Cooperation to enhance industrial use of LENS facilities
Eddy Lelièvre-Berna
New opportunities with high-field magnets
Davide Raspino
Neutron detector technologies for neutron scattering
Craig Bull
Challenges for neutron scattering at high pressure
Luca Zanini
Activities in LENS WG3 on neutron moderators
Thomas Holm Rod
Collaborating on data analysis
Sanghamitra Mukhopadhyay
Atomistic simulations in neutron scattering: current status and scope for future
Stephanie Chapman
Communication and promotion
Philip King and Miriam Förster
Horizon Europe: Update on project submission
On 18 February, facility directors and senior representatives convened online for LENS’ Council meeting. During the closed meeting, members shared more details of facilities’ recent and planned activities, which fed into discussions around the structure and scope of LENS’ Working Groups.
Another key topic of discussion was the LENS ‘vision’ document, which is currently in preparation. The document addresses the current and future neutron landscape in Europe, highlighting the importance of a strong and diverse ecosystem of neutron facilities in science and innovation. The publication, which has received input from across LENS membership and beyond, will be available summer 2022, as a deliverable of the Brightness2 project.
LENS Council met again at the end of April 2022 for hybrid meeting coinciding with the UK Neutron & Muon Science and User Meeting (NMSUM) 2022.
