Since the summer of 2014, the construction of the European Spallation Source (ESS) has begun and is currently well underway. ESS is one of the largest science infrastructure projects being built in Europe today. Designed to generate neutron beams for science, ESS will benefit a broad range of research, from life science to engineering materials, from heritage conservation to magnetism.
The legal structure responsible for building and operating ESS is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium. The ESS ERIC was officially designated by the European Commission in August of 2015.
The present construction phase is co-financed in the form of cash and in-kind contributions. In-kind contributions from partner countries is of the order of 41 % of the 1.843 B€ total construction cost and allow to build and develop ESS with a wide range of expertise coming from all over Europe. Indeed as ESS is a Greenfield European project, it is relying on the expertise and know-how of Partners Institutes and Industry to be successful. In-kind contracts concerning the Accelerator are already on going and most of them will be active throughout the year. Whereas those concerning the Instruments are being specified and will be active later on.
France, Germany and Switzerland are founding members of the European Spallation Source ERIC and has significantly contributed to the pre-construction phase and to the Technical Design Report. Furthermore these three countries are involved in 11 over 15 ESS instruments with 6 instruments with consortium involving two of the three countries. In that context, ESS with its French, German and Swiss Partners are organising an ESS Instruments Industry Day in Paris the 8th of June 2018.