The EPSRC has approved a grant proposal from the University of Nottingham for the UK research community to become a member of the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL). The 3.9M Euros of funding will enable UK users access to the EMFL installations in Grenoble, Toulouse, Dresden, and Nijmegen. According to Prof Amalia Patané, president of the EMFL user committee and Professor of Physics at Nottingham, access to the EMFL facilities will allow UK researchers to ‘maintain their world-leading position’ in this important area. The other members of the EMFL are the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), with sites in Grenoble and Toulouse, the Dutch Radboud University (RU) together with the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) in Nijmegen and the German Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
The EMFL was formally founded in January 2015 by these three institutions, after having received support from the European Community being part of the ESRFI Roadmap. The EMFL aims to develop and operate world class high magnetic fields – both continuous and pulsed – and to use them for excellent research by both in-house and external users. High magnetic fields are one of the most powerful tools available to scientists for the study, the modification and the control of the state of matter. The University of Nottingham will be representing the UK in the EMFL for a duration of five years, starting from December 1st, 2015. The membership enables UK users access to all the EMFL installations and measurement techniques, expert support from local staff members, as well as funding for travel and subsistence. The grant proposal states that ”The synergy of the EMFL with other large-scale international facilities is unprecedented and has the potential to bring the UK to the forefront of important scientific and technological developments.”
Posted on Friday 5th February 2016