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Austria strengthens its engagement in the ESRF Programme

26-06-2018

Austria increases its association level to the ESRF from 1.3 to 1.75%, reflecting the increased use of the ESRF by its very successful and vibrant scientific community.

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On Friday 22 June 2018 a new Arrangement between Austria and ESRF was signed. The signing ceremony took place at the historical headquarters of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in Vienna, and the new Arrangement was signed by the President of the Academy, Prof. Anton Zeilinger, and the ESRF Director General, Dr Francesco Sette, under the auspices of Dr Daniel Weselka, Director of Basic Research and Research Infrastructures at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). The event was launched with speeches given by Prof. Zeilinger and Dr. Sette.

The signing of this agreement is particularly important for the ESRF and the Austrian scientific community as it represents an even stronger engagement of Austria towards the ESRF, with Austria raising its association level from 1.3% to 1.75%, reflecting the increased use of the ESRF by its very successful and vibrant scientific community which has provided an invaluable contribution to the ESRF programme throughout a long-standing international collaboration. It also reflects the role of synchrotron science within the Austrian scientific community, and the high expectations linked to the opportunities to be opened up by the implementation of the ESRF-EBS programme.

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Dr Francesco Sette (left) and Prof. Anton Zeilinger sign the agreement. 

The signing event was preceded by a meeting between the representatives of the Austrian synchrotron user community and the ESRF Delegation, composed of I. Echeverría, Secretary to the ESRF Council, and F. Sette. This meeting was chaired by Oskar Paris, Austrian Observer to the ESRF Council and Professor and Dean of Studies at the Montanuniversitaet Leoben, and was favoured with the presence and introduction of Prof. Helmut Rauch, Head of the Commission for Research at International Large-Scale Facilities at the Academy of Sciences, and the presence of well-known long-term ESRF users, such as Prof. Gunther Bauer. During this meeting, a review of the science carried out by Austria at the ESRF in the last 15 years was presented by Prof. Paris and lively discussions were held with the scientific community further to the presentation by Francesco Sette of an overview of the ESRF today and the opportunities that it will offer in the future.

Following the signature of the new Arrangement, Francesco Sette took part in the meeting of the Members of the Mathematical and the Natural Sciences Division of the Academy, where he was invited to give a lecture on the ESRF’s contribution to modern X-ray science.