The%20Science%20and%20Technology%20Facilities%20Council%20and%20Nuclear%20Physics

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The Science and Technology Facilities Council
and Nuclear Physics

• John Womersley
• Director, Science Programmes
• October 2008

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Health, Security, the Economy, Education
10-6m
1m
Human Challenges
STFC in partnership
STFC leads
10-18m
103m
Universal Challenges
Global Challenges
Particle physics Astronomy Searching for life
Climate Energy Environment
107m
1026m
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Nuclear Physics

• The UK has an active research community despite
  hosting no accelerator facility

• Top 16 research themes from 2007 grants round

JYFL Theory Isolde JLAB
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Future direction

• A new generation of accelerators able to make
  beams of unstable nuclei are now becoming
  available
• Opens an important new window to explore why
  atomic nuclei exist, how the forces that hold
  them together behave, and how the chemical
  elements on which life depends were made in
  stars.
• We will focus our investment in nuclear physics
  on the highest priority programmes at
  international accelerator facilities - notably we
  will participate in the new Facility for
  Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in
  Germany
• Shifts emphasis from exploitation to construction

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AGATA

• 4.1M approved over 4 years
• contribution to the construction of the first 1pi
  of the 4 pi detector
• Formal grant announcements soon
• Liverpool, Manchester, Daresbury, UWS, Surrey,
  York
• 11 academics, 3 PDRAs (new positions), 4 FTE
  technical effort, 3 students.

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NuSTAR

• 9.5M approved over 6 years
• Expecting to fund R3B and HISPEC (some
  flexibility to swap WPs with other countries to
  allow UK to maintain presence in DESPEC or
  LaSPEC)
• Negotiations ongoing.
• Will involve at least 6 institutions.

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PANDA

• 2.7M approved over 6 years
• Magnet construction Disc DIRC decision pending.
• Involves Glasgow potentially Edinburgh

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FAIR

• Launch event November 2007
• Contributing through NuSTAR, PANDA (and work on
  AIDA which was funded through an EPSRC grant).
• FAIR GmbH to be set up by early 2009?

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LHC

• Our highest priority in particlephysics is the
  Large Hadron Collider at CERN - its results
  will be transformative.
• The UK plays a strong and central role two of
  the LHC experiments are UK-led.
• The UK research community has been a major player
  in constructing the LHC and the advanced
  computing infrastructure to handle the data we
  will support its exploitation of the exciting
  results

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LHC start-up

• The first beam circulated in the LHC on
  September 10th, to enormous media interest
• However, magnet problems mean the programme
  wont get underway properly until 2009

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ALICE

• Relativisitic heavy ion collisions at LHC

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Boulby Underground Laboratory

• NP groups involved in dark matter searches
• Interest in using Boulby for a nuclear
  astrophysics experiment

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Neutrinos

• The recent discovery that neutrinos have mass and
  mix with each other may ultimately account for
  the very existence of our universe.
• We are taking this area of science forward with a
  programme of
• accelerator neutrino experiments including a
  significant role in the T2K experiment in Japan,
  which is due to come on-line in 2009
• non-accelerator experiments including RD towards
  the SuperNEMO experiment, which will test whether
  neutrinos and anti-neutrinos are actually the
  same thing.

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Accelerator Research

• Accelerator technology is a key enabler across a
  large fraction of our research
• Particle and nuclear physics
• Synchrotrons and free electron light sources
• Neutron sources
• In this area we support
• Design studies for New Light Source project and
  for a future Neutrino Factory
• Operation of test facilities - ERLP/ALICE, EMMA,
  MICE
• Work on high power proton accelerators
• Work on novel techniques (FFAG) and underlying
  technologies (SCRF)
• The Cockcroft and Adams Institutes, ASTeC, and
  university groups

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Understanding our place in the universe
John Womersley
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Wakeham Review of Physics

• Concerns about training and skills in nuclear
  disciplines
• The Panel recommends that RCUK develop a review
  of the priorities in nuclear physics research to
  ensure they best match the needs of the UK.
• RCUK accepts this recommendation, and over the
  next year STFC and EPSRC will jointly review the
  research portfolio in nuclear physics,
  engineering and related areas to assess how they
  can best support the skills needs of the UK.

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Interdisciplinary research facilities
John Womersley
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Opening the door to Science and Innovation
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Science and Innovation Campuses

• Develop the Science and Innovation Campuses at
  Harwell and Daresbury as focal points for
  collaboration and knowledge exchange with
  industry and academic researchers,
• Should also be gateways to our in-house expertise
  and that of the communities we support
• We will increasingly try to focus our technology
  competencies on an outward facing collaborative
  role

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Gateway Centres

• Funding for three new centres has been earmarked
  from the large facilities capital fund
• Detector Systems Centre - advanced detector
  technology
• Hartree Centre a step-change in modelling and
  simulation
• Imaging Solutions Centre transforming
  facilities access into solutions access
• To follow
• Space Centre a new space centre for the UK
• Joint Institute for Materials Design
  integrating materials innovation with advanced
  characterization

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Futures Programmes

• We will be identifying STFC coordinators and
  points of contact for technology applications in
• Bio-medical
• Security
• Energy
• Environmental Change

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International Science Advisory Committee
Executive
Council
ISAC
Science Board
Science Committees
PPAN
PALS
AGP
PPRP
ASTAB
FDRP
GrantsPanels
PPGP
Projects Review Panels
Accelerator Science and Technology Advisory Board
NPGP
Advisory Panels
Advisory Panels
Advisory Panels
Advisory Panels
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STFC facilities in the roadmap The Daresbury
and Harwell Science and innovation
campuses Diamond Beamlines Phase III ISIS - TS2
instrumentation (Phase III) ESRF upgrade
XFEL Diode Pumped Optical Laser for Experiments
(DIPOLE) Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI)
European Extremely Large Telescope FAIR SKA New
Light Source project European 3rd Generation
Gravitational Wave Observatory Neutrino Factory
Future Particle Physics Colliders Underground
Science Initiatives HiPER Next generation
neutron sources
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• Questions, comments?
• Your input is welcome
• john.womersley_at_stfc.ac.uk
• 01793 442622