High-tech forerunner for North-West's knowledge economy

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High-tech forerunner for North-West's knowledge economy

Scientists, engineers and technologists at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire have welcomed the formal opening of the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury.



But despite the potential opportunities the campus will provide, deep concerns among staff still exist, explained Prospect representative and scientist at the site Dr Steve Bennett.

"Bringing universities, private companies and national facilities together has to be good for innovation and the knowledge economy, but a new accelerator proposed at Daresbury, known as 4GLS (the 4th generation light source), is not yet funded. This will be the big science attractor in the north-west and will be essential to retain the high technology skills needed to underpin the Daresbury campus."

However, said Dr Bennett, staff in the north-west viewed today’s launch as a move towards securing their laboratory's existence when its central research machine, the synchrotron radiation source (SRS) comes to the end of its life in 2008.

In addition to the launch of the Daresbury campus, today’s visit by Lord Sainsbury marked the official opening of a second science and innovation campus at Harwell in Oxfordshire which includes CCLRC’s - the research council responsible for large-scale scientific instruments - other main site the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Each site is based around government-funded high technology research facilities that will fuel knowledge-based developments for the regions, while the CCLRC link will encourage interdisciplinary research and innovation. With one campus in the north-west and another in the south-east the plan is that the regional centres will operate together as national assets. The CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory houses the ISIS neutron source and the new Diamond synchrotron.

"4GLS will be a world leading machine in its field and will be complementary to the accelerators at the Rutherford Appleton Lab," explained Dr Bennett. "It will be vital in maintaining the balance between the south-east and the north-west.

"Staff are working flat out to support research using the SRS and at the same time complete and commission a prototype electron accelerator to prove the principles behind the 4th generation light source. The government is supporting this effort but there is no slack in the programme and we must secure every help possible to make this laboratory the success it deserves to be at the hub of the new campus."

The aim of the campus model is to build partnerships between regional universities, private business and publicly-funded science, and the large-scale research facilities are central to the concept. This has already taken a big step forward with the establishment of the Cockcroft Institute, also inaugurated today on the Daresbury site, which brings together CCLRC and the Universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester to develop the particle accelerators of the future.