The 39th meeting of the ESS Council took place on 3-4 December at ESS in Lund.
The meeting started with a status update provided by Director General Helmut Schober and a report by the Chair of the ESS Council, Robert McGreevy.
During the meeting, the Council received several updates from the ESS Management and Advisory Committees, approved the budget for the year 2025 as well as several outstanding in-kind agreements.
Progress Update
Progress in the construction, integration and testing of the ESS facility in Lund and the Data Management and Software Centre (DMSC), located outside Copenhagen, was presented during the report and through a visit of the Lund site.
Talking about the upcoming key project milestone and the commissioning of the accelerator, the Director General stressed the importance of the in-kind contribution from the member states, and the associated knowledge exchange.
The Director General provided an update regarding the management of future radioactive waste by informing the Council delegates that ESS is working closely with the Swedish Government and Swedish authorities to find a solution for the sustainable management of such waste.
Developing the ESS Science Programme
Activities in progress to prepare for First Science were presented and discussed, in view of the early operations that are planned to start in 2027. ESS Science Director, Giovanna Fragneto, presented to the Council the idea to start the process for the definition of next phase of ESS with a call for input from the community to define future scientific orientations of the facility aiming at producing a strong case for funding next instrument suite.
“It is an intense and important phase of the project as we are striving to complete the instruments and all the support capabilities for delivering science at our facility. I am glad that Council appreciates these efforts from all the science directorate staff”, says Giovanna Fragneto.
The Director General of ILL, the Institut Laue-Langevin located in Grenoble, reported on ongoing scientific activities, and highlighted present and future collaborations between the two research infrastructures.
Getting closer to Steady State Operations (SSO)
In line with the project time plan, several presentations and discussions were dedicated to the future operations.
The Council Chair, Robert McGreevy, congratulated the ESS Management and organisation for the progress since the last meeting, encouraging ESS to continue the effort in preparing the facility for steady-state operations:
"The progress that Council saw on the tour of the target and instruments was impressive. ESS is starting to look more like a facility ready for operation. But there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve that goal, both before and after a well earned Christmas break."
The next meeting of the ESS Council will take place on 11 and 12 February at the ESS DMSC facilities in the DTU Campus in Lyngby, Denmark
Read more about the ESS Governance and previous Meetings of the ESS Council.
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