Download: "ESS Activity Report 2009-2010" (PDF, 5 MB)

Foreword: To say that the past twelve months have been a pivotal year for the European Spallation Source would be an understatement.

The political agreement at the end of May 2009 to choose Lund in southern Sweden as the site for ESS has been widely endorsed by the scientific community in Europe and has resulted in a growing number of countries – currently 14 – joining together to take the project through a three-year Design Update phase and on to construction, so that the European community of researchers will have at their disposal the world’s most powerful neutron source.

This has only been achieved through the dedicated work of many people. Of course the energy and determination of the three competing sites – Bilbao, Debrecen and Lund – ultimately ensured that a decision would be taken. This in turn was made possible by the engagement of ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, which resolved to reach a conclusion about the siting of the facility, but none of this would have been possible without the pioneering work over 20 years of an impressive assembly of talent.

Now the first hesitant steps are being taken to realise in practice the European Spallation Source. The future decade will be no less challenging than the previous two decades. However, all barriers have been removed and Europe is working together. It will once again require an array of expertise, at least as talented and determined as those who have brought us to this point. But there is no shortage of talent in Europe, and no shortage of determination.

Colin Carlile

Director of ESS