BrightnESS Closing Conference, 22 June 2018 in Brussels

We are pleased to announce the BrightnESS Closing Conference planned for 22 June 2018 at the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts in Brussels. The Conference will demonstrate the results achieved by the project and give prominent visibility to the support provided by the EU towards the realisation of the European Spallation Source.  The Conference will bring together representatives of the 18 project consortium partners, ESS management and governance as well as the broader neutron science community. Follow this link to register.

Registered participants now have the opportunity to book their accomodation at a discount rate at the Thon Hotel EU, Rue de la Loi, in walking distance to the conference venue. To use this discount, please follow this link to the hotel website. The hotel should be booked by May 31. The conference will start with a dinner in Brussels on 21 June at 19.30.

After more than two and a half years of successful implementation, the BrightnESS project is nearing the end of its project duration. Set-up to support one of the largest research infrastructure projects being built in Europe today, BrightnESS has successfully addressed some of the key challenges areas faced by the European Spallation Source, such as detector development and in-kind management. 

The conference will provide a platform to showcase the impact of BrightnESS and long-term sustainability effects on ESS, its partner organisations and the wider research community while facilitating networking opportunities among partners and stakeholders. Participants of the event are expected from ESS and the partner network, in addition to the wider European scientific and research infrastructure community.

The programme will include panels addressing three main themes, including: 

• European Neutron Landscape
  The landscape of neutron scattering in Europe is going through a period of change with several existing reactor-based sources reaching the end of their lives at the same time as major investment in new capability at ESS and elsewhere. The future of neutron scattering is bright, but both the landscape of facilities and the community of users must take a proactive and strategic approach to navigating and managing these changes in a holistic way, in order to ensure the sustainability and vitality of this important research technique. 
• Technological Innovation
  BrightnESS has enabled the development, testing and optimisation of new, state-of-the-art technology in neutron detectors, and supported progress in many technical areas, such as improved understanding of moderator physics, and the development of engineering solution for novel moderator design as well as creating innovative software infrastructure to make the experimental data available as a live stream.
• In-kind Contributions and the ERIC Framework
  A network of Field Coordinators has been set up under BrightnESS to enhance communication between ESS and the partners. This has helped enormously to mitigate the significant risk that ESS took when it elected to rely upon such an extensive use of in-kind contributions to a unique, highly complex, facility. Additionally, BrightnESS helped ESS gain a better understanding of VAT issue in each ESS Member State and facilitated approaching appropriate solutions. 

Each panel will feature a key note speaker followed by a panel discussion.

More detailed information about the event and registration will follow and become available on the conference website. The deadline for registering for the Closing Conference is June 17.