Keeping Diamond competitive on the world synchrotron stage

During the past six months, Andrew Harrison, CEO, and his fellow directors have been focused on leading the development of a 10-year vision and strategy for Diamond. This strategy will map out how best to strengthen the UK synchrotron’s position as a world leading facility for scientific research and, in doing so, help the country to meet a wide variety of scientific and societal challenges. Their approach has been based on consultation, both internally with staff from across the science and technical divisions and externally with representatives from academia, industry, other large science facilities, funding bodies and additional stakeholders. With such a diverse range of people involved and so many potential growth paths open to the facility, how challenging has it been to draw the strategy together?

Internal consultation

The directors began by asking representatives from the various beamline ‘villages’ to consult with colleagues and draw up ideas on how the existing beamlines at Diamond could develop in the coming years. New technology can be harnessed to better serve the external user groups coming in or to grow the beamlines’ capabilities so as to attract new users to the synchrotron. In addition, thought needs to be given as to how the new Phase III beamlines should be integrated to ensure their capabilities complement the work of existing user communities.

Technical groups in the science division developed proposals for advances in optics and detector developments, along with important developments in scientific software and data handling.

In parallel to this, the technical division was tasked with preparing options for machine developments that will allow ambitious science targets to be met and ensure Diamond remains competitive at a global level.

Andrew recalls, “Our early discussions highlighted many exciting developments that would put Diamond in a very strong position going forward. They also identified areas where we needed to act with caution and spend time weighing up the pros and cons of certain ideas across all beamlines.”

Diamond is a complex facility offering a variety of techniques that can be utilised by researchers from many different fields. These researchers inevitably have a diverse range of needs and priorities. One of Diamond’s key strengths has always been the fact that it has involved external scientists and stakeholders in decisions about how the facility will develop to ensure that it is truly meeting the needs of the scientific communities that it serves.

To ensure that Diamond’s plans incorporate ideas and priorities from external stakeholders, scientists, technicians, and funding bodies, a vision meeting was held at the facility in late September 2014. Andrew explains, “For the purposes of the meeting, we realised that in order to draw together common scientific themes we would need to deviate from the traditional ‘village’ structure that Diamond has had since operations began. The six areas that we concentrated on were structural biology, chemistry and catalysis, condensed matter physics, engineering and materials, biomaterials and medicine, and soft matter.”

Summarising the outputs, Andrew adds, “The meeting was really successful on many fronts. We had an excellent turnout with over 60 external attendees and the discussions were very lively, which I think reflects how much people care about Diamond’s future and how committed they are to helping us make it a success. The draft vision and strategy document that we circulated prior to the meeting was met with approval but, as we had hoped, new opportunities and ideas were brought to the table.”

Having drawn together input from many key staff and external stakeholders, how is the vision and strategy shaping up?

The synchrotron has the potential to help scientists with a tremendous range of complex scientific and industrial challenges in the years ahead. Here is an outline of the priorities identified for Diamond:

Andrew explains, “It has been very uplifting to have such strong engagement with researchers and stakeholders who have seen Diamond grow from its early operations. The areas that we covered were many and varied and included general issues such as access to beamlines. Currently, experiment ideas will take around a year to receive beamtime. We want to revisit the way we engage with users to see if there are improvements that can be made to the way we provide our service. We also need to think beyond Diamond and see if there are ways we can streamline access to Diamond and other facilities, such as ISIS and the CLF, when users are looking to access complementary techniques as part of a single proposal.”

Technical aspirations

“Developments on the technical side also formed an important part of our discussions and there was strong support for exploring improvements to the source, detectors, optics and Diamond’s ability to handle and analyse increasing quantities of data, in line with advances at other synchrotrons around the world.”

“In terms of major machine improvements, we discussed potential future upgrades to the source and lattice that would offer exciting capabilities in terms of new science that we would be able to facilitate. The clear message back to Diamond was that regular access to a stable, reliable source was a key reason why researchers chose to undertake experiments at the facility. A major upgrade that would require a prolonged period of shutdown will need very careful planning to ensure that our users were supported throughout. The scientific case for a major upgrade needs to look across all beamlines so that we gain a comprehensive picture of the impact on Diamond as a whole.”

A view of things to come

Andrew concludes, “It has been a fascinating few months and we are now close to finalising the 10-year vision and strategy, which is extremely exciting. The directors and I are looking forward to sharing the new vision and strategy with staff, users, peers and stakeholders in coming months. We are also currently in discussions with our funding bodies regarding building a strong case for important short term developments relating to detectors, optics, beamlines and sample environments within this current Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). We will also be asking for funding to develop the science case and technical specification for a potential major upgrade to the machine which would have a timeframe of 2021/22. Our ultimate goal is to equip the UK with the tools and expertise to do the best science possible in the 21st century. If researchers have easy access to these tools, their ideas and determination will help Diamond to flourish in the years ahead.”

If you would like to share your thoughts on our future plans, or have any enquiries regarding the future of Diamond, please contact the Head of Communications, Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke: isabelle.boscaro-clarke@diamond.ac.uk