Background

Provision of peripheral laboratories at Diamond is an integral part of the Diamond Project and the overriding objective of these laboratories is to make Diamond a better provider of synchrotron facilities. The laboratories have been furnished with equipment essential to ensure success of beamline experiments by provision of immediate and timely access to supporting analytical tools. In addition, the offline laboratories support the in-house science programme which is necessary to sustain the long term health of the facility.

It is important that Diamond should maximise the benefit to the UK of the investment made in the facility and therefore procedures are now in place to enhance use of the offline laboratories.

Practical Considerations

• Searchable index of the available facilities.
• Procedures for making enquiries and arranging access.
• Information on costs and levels of support.

Priorities and Practical Constraints

The first priority of Diamond Light Source is the provision of synchrotron facilities for users and the operating budgets agreed by the Diamond Board are designed with this solely in mind. Therefore, whilst Diamond staff will be as helpful as possible, their first priority must be to help users on beamlines. For the same reason the highest priority for external use of the offline labs must be for work that supports approved synchrotron experiments.