The neutron landscape in Europe is going through a period of dramatic change. Two major, national facilities will close by 2020 while substantial investment in a new European facility, ESS, will deliver transformative capabilities and extend the technique to new domains by the middle of the next decade.

After the Millennium upgrade programmes, ILL is currently executing phase one of the Endurance programme to further enhance its instruments and infrastructure and is now preparing a second, more extensive phase of Endurance that will be the basis of future operations well beyond 2023.

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.

ILL and ESS therefore feel that it is timely to review recent achievements and the current status and, above all, look forward to new scientific opportunities with neutrons for the next decade.

The User Meeting programme foresees ten keynote speakers on future directions in neutron science, as well as reports on recent achievements and ongoing work at ILL and ESS. There will be ‘focus sessions’ in the User Meeting to highlight several key techniques while satellite events, in parallel with the User Meeting, will allow participants to delve deeper into specific areas of neutron science.