ESRF and Saha Institute agree on cooperation

The SINP is an Indian governmental research institute with a wide programme of fundamental research in condensed matter and material science, nuclear, high energy and theoretical physics as well as biophysical sciences. The SINP and the ESRF, in view of their common mission to build and operate high performance accelerator based facilities, have agreed to strengthen cooperation between the European and Indian communities in both the scientific and technical fields of synchrotron science. The Memorandum lays the basis for future access of Indian scientists to public beamtime at the ESRF, the exchange of expertise in the fields of accelerator technologies, and the training of young scientists and engineers at the ESRF.

	The main building of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata (India)

Collaboration between the ESRF and the Indian scientific community in the field of synchrotron radiation has been steadily increasing over recent years. An important milestone was the signature of a MoU between the ESRF and the Indian National Institute of Immunology in December 2009, which made possible closer collaboration in the field of macromolecular crystallography, notably the use, since January 2010, of the ESRF beamline BM14 by the NII in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

The Memorandum of Understanding with the SINP has now established the basis to gradually extend this cooperation to all areas of synchrotron radiation science and instrumentation.

Top image: The logo of the SINP which was established in 1949