Spain new founding member of the European Spallation Source ERIC

Spain was the first Partner country to sign the Letter of Intent to participate in the ESS project, having the observer status since the creation of the European Spallation Source ERIC in August 2015. Since then, the Central Government and the Basque Government, consortium administrations in the project, have focused their efforts on achieving this new status.

ESS Bilbao, is the entity that represents Spain in the European project and the institution responsible for carrying out the In-Kind contributions, through the works that are being developed and that provide knowledge and added value to Spanish participation.

ESS Bilbao is a consortium, participated by the Government of Spain, through the State Secretariat of Research, Development in Innovation, and by the Basque Government, through the Department of Economic Development and Infrastructure and the Department of Education.

In July of last year, the central and Basque administrations agreed that Spain's participation in the European scientific infrastructure would be 3%, which led to a modification of the agreement between both governments and a new framework of financing conditions.

Within this new framework, the budget that was granted to comply with the agreements with Lund was 64.5M €, of which the Spanish Government will contribute with more than 42M € and the Basque Government will do it with 22M €. The distribution of the contribution of Spain will be 90% In Kind and 10% in cash. The entry of Spain into the ERIC as a full member implies the maintenance of all the work packages currently under execution as part of the commitment of the Spanish participation in the European project.

This project is strategic for Spain and its scientific community, both from the point of view of users who will benefit from their research with neutrons, and from the strengthening of capabilities and technological developments that this project will provide for the Spanish science industry.