Successful BrightnESS Mid-Term Review meeting

The three-year BrightnESS project is funded with nearly €20 M by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. The aim of the project is to support the construction of the European Spallation Source ERIC in key technical areas and in-kind coordination. The grant provides resources for the development, testing and optimisation of beyond state-of-the-art technologies that will be implemented at ESS in the coming years. It also supports the research infrastructure in ensuring continued alignment between the physical construction of the site in Lund and the development and delivery of vital instruments and construction components and components by the many partner institutes and companies across Europe and beyond.

BrightnESS Project Coordinator Roy Pennings opened the Mid-Term Review meeting by welcoming the European Commission Project Officer, Mina Koleva and the Commission’s independent external evaluator, Dr. Karl Tichmann. After an introduction on the overall development status of the ESS by Director General John Womersley, all aspects of administrative, financial and technical project progress were reviewed in detail. The Coordination Team and the Work Package Leaders presented the achievements of BrightnESS project thus far and emphasized the strong support of all the consortium partners. Work package contributors from ESS Bilbao, BNC and PSI were also invited to present their achievements to complement the Work Package presentations. Here is an overview of the major BrightnESS accomplishments during the First Reporting Period:

Work Package 1: Project Management

• 17 out of 21 deliverables have been approved by the European Commission and 3 deliverables are awaiting approval (M1 – M22);
• With the exception of one (which is near complete), almost all milestones for the period have been achieved;
• Technical and financial planning is on target and monitoring is running well;
• The First Periodic Report and the amendment to the Grant Agreement were approved by the European Commission;

Work Package 2: Strengthening In-Kind Contribution and Coordination

• Resources mobilised to build capacity and knowledge at the ESS and within partners to consistently monitor the development and transfer of In-Kind;
• Creation of a network of In-Kind Hubs and installation and training of Field Coordinators to monitor intra-institute and institute-ESS IKC in relation to overall construction planning;
• Online In-Kind Management platform (XRM+) developed to deliver key information to the In-kind Management Coordination Office, ESS partners and ESS management for the governance of the ESS Project.

Work Package 3: Organisational Innovation

• Progresses in the discussion on how to handle VAT in relation to IKC activities between institutes and with suppliers. Views held by the different member countries and possible individual solutions have been outlined;
• Development of an Innovation Policy for ESS and setting up of a Technology Transfer Office, as well running of trainings for scientists on identification and handling of innovations at ESS;
• Increased understanding of Pre-Competitive Procurement (PCP) and Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) as instruments to foster innovation.

Work Package 4: Innovation of Key Neutronic Technologies: Detectors and Moderators

• Development and demonstration of a novel 10B-based Multi-Blade detector with an improvement in counting rate capability and spatial resolution by about a factor three over state-of-the-art 3He-based reflectometer detectors;
• Approval of the design and engineering technique baseline for Gadolinium convertors for detectors;
• Development and demonstration of the Low Dimension Moderator which significantly enhances neutron source brightness;
• Technical improvement via simulation and demonstration of a Multi-Grid detector as the key 3He replacement technology application, as it represents 60-70% of the active detector area for the ESS instrument suite;

Work Package 5: Real-Time Management of ESS Data

• Event formation solved for a number of detector prototypes.
• Simulation, review and design approval for the data aggregator software for data aggregation and streaming as well as for the serialisation library;

Work Package 6: Collaboration, Communication and Dissemination

• A pan-European survey of neutron sources was carried out to identify scientific trends among European neutron users, and collect consolidated information about the technical capacity of the participating research facilities, and gather data about the usage of instruments across scientific disciplines.
• Enlargement of the ESS Member base. Meetings held with various stakeholders in Latvia, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, India, China. Since the start of BrightnESS, the UK has become a member country and the Netherlands has put the ESS on its multi-year strategic science roadmap, which can be considered as the final step toward ESS Observer status and possibly official member status;
• Supported to ESS in strengthening its ILO Network and expanding the opportunity for innovation by mobilizing industry for ESS.
• Communication tools and materials developed to disseminate the results of BrightnESS and provide timely update on the project progress to internal and external audiences.

Throughout the Mid-Term Review meeting, the Commission’s external evaluator had several suggestions and recommendations, which the BrightnESS Steering Board will now discuss and act upon accordingly. Project Officer Mina Koleva confirmed that the recommendations do not have any influence on the already submitted and approved Technical Report or Financial Report.

In his summary overview of the day’s assessment, evaluator Dr. Tichmann congratulated the consortium on the overall status of the project and said: “You are in a fantastic position for the start of the ESS. You have working software, working detectors, a working management system and you have fantastic staff.”