The members of ERF sign charter document of formal association
At a recent meeting at DESY in Hamburg, the founding members of the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF) signed a charter document to constitute the association formally.
The ERF is an initiative by 11 European laboratories to promote the co-operation between individual nationally funded large-scale research facilities in Europe. Among its associates are European laboratories that provide large facilities with neutrons, lasers, synchrotron light, ions and particles with open access to international scientific communities. Its present chair is Albrecht Wagner, chair of the DESY directorate. The association now has 14 nationally funded European laboratories as members, which together serve more than 13,000 users worldwide and cover a wide research spectrum, from archaeology to life sciences, including an estimated 20% directly or indirectly connected with industry.
The aim of the ERF is to provide a forum to coordinate the development of leading national facilities for European research and to develop mechanisms and best practices for international access to large-scale research facilities. It will act as a source of scientific and technical expertise for national and European policy making and represent a large constituency of large-scale research facilities speaking with one voice to decision makers. With the help of topic-oriented joint initiatives and consortia, the ERF will make resources for large-scale research facilities available by co-operation.
The founder members of ERF are Societé Civile Synchrotron Soleil, France; Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH, Germany; Elettra-Societa Sincrotrone, Italy; DESY; MAX-Lab, Sweden; Grand Accelerateur National d'Ions Lourds, France; Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland; FOM Rijnhuizen, the Netherlands; Max-Born Institut, Germany; Hahn-Meitner Institut, Germany; and Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK.