Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BEATS (Beamline for Tomography at SESAME)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30
The storage ring based synchrotron light source SESAME (Synchrotron light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, Image 01), hosted in Allan (Jordan), is the Middle East's first major international research centre, set up as a cooperative venture by scientists and governments of the region, based on the model of CERN, although it has very different scientific aims. As an intergovernmental scientific and technological centre of excellence open to all scientists from the Middle East and elsewhere, SESAME serves as a propeller for the scientific, technical, and economic development of the Region and will strengthen collaboration in science.
SESAME will both:
• Foster scientific and technological excellence in the Middle East and neighbouring countries (and prevent or reverse the “brain drain”) by enabling world-class scientific research in subjects ranging from biology, health, and food to archaeology and cultural heritage, and medical sciences through basic properties of materials science, physics, chemistry, and life sciences;
• Build scientific and cultural bridges between diverse societies, and contribute to a culture of peace through international cooperation in science.
The overall objective of the project Beamline for Tomography at SESAME (BEATS) is to pave the way for an efficient and sustainable operation of the research infrastructure. The project has the following key objectives:
• Develop and consolidate the scientific case and build up a science community, paying particular attention to the R&D and technology needs of the SESAME Members and beyond.
• Design, procure, construct, and commission a beamline for hard X-ray full-field tomography at SESAME;
• Foster collaborations among the project partners in all aspects of the technical work to ensure that a comprehensive transfer of knowledge to SESAME staff is accomplished within the lifetime of the project;
• Address the issue of sustainability of operation by preparing medium- to long-term funding scenarios for the tomography beamline.
The project consortium is very satisfied to state the aforementioned objectives have been achieved:
• The BEATS beamline was successfully installed, is operational within day one specifications and will be available to SESAME’s public user program from beginning 2024 onward.
• By applying concepts of building up a user community (from large scale events, workshops on global and regional character down to personalized contacts in the region, new users were introduced to the facility and SESAME’s visibility was greatly enhanced, in particular within possible new members.
• Intense exchange between the BEATS beneficiaries led to a fruitful knowledge transfer with positive synergies already visible during the last reporting period, during which BEATS was commissioned on location. Worthwile to mention in this context is the fact that SOLARIS will use, as source for one of their newly to be built beamlines, the blueprints of the BEATS 3-pole wiggler design.
SESAME will both:
• Foster scientific and technological excellence in the Middle East and neighbouring countries (and prevent or reverse the “brain drain”) by enabling world-class scientific research in subjects ranging from biology, health, and food to archaeology and cultural heritage, and medical sciences through basic properties of materials science, physics, chemistry, and life sciences;
• Build scientific and cultural bridges between diverse societies, and contribute to a culture of peace through international cooperation in science.
The overall objective of the project Beamline for Tomography at SESAME (BEATS) is to pave the way for an efficient and sustainable operation of the research infrastructure. The project has the following key objectives:
• Develop and consolidate the scientific case and build up a science community, paying particular attention to the R&D and technology needs of the SESAME Members and beyond.
• Design, procure, construct, and commission a beamline for hard X-ray full-field tomography at SESAME;
• Foster collaborations among the project partners in all aspects of the technical work to ensure that a comprehensive transfer of knowledge to SESAME staff is accomplished within the lifetime of the project;
• Address the issue of sustainability of operation by preparing medium- to long-term funding scenarios for the tomography beamline.
The project consortium is very satisfied to state the aforementioned objectives have been achieved:
• The BEATS beamline was successfully installed, is operational within day one specifications and will be available to SESAME’s public user program from beginning 2024 onward.
• By applying concepts of building up a user community (from large scale events, workshops on global and regional character down to personalized contacts in the region, new users were introduced to the facility and SESAME’s visibility was greatly enhanced, in particular within possible new members.
• Intense exchange between the BEATS beneficiaries led to a fruitful knowledge transfer with positive synergies already visible during the last reporting period, during which BEATS was commissioned on location. Worthwile to mention in this context is the fact that SOLARIS will use, as source for one of their newly to be built beamlines, the blueprints of the BEATS 3-pole wiggler design.
The first reporting period (from 01/01/2019 to 30/6/2020) of the BEATS project saw important activities aiming at the design of both the optimal x-ray source and the beamline.
With the subsequent procurement phase practically terminated at the end of the 2nd reporting period (from 01/07/2020 to 31/12/2021), during the 3rd reporting period, the activities of the BEATS consortium concentrated on the installation and commissioning of the beamline and its infrastructure, which comprised, among many other activities:
• The installation of the radiation protection infrastructure, the
• Installation of the x-ray source and the beam-shaping elements in the front end,
• Successful radiation tests,
• The installation of the beamline’s vacuum system, optical and experimental equipment, the IT infrastructure and control system.
This lead to the successful first tomography scans and experiments with friendly users on time in June 2023.
In parallel, during the whole duration of the project, activities on user community building continued, with the pandemic no longer substantially affecting travel and personal exchange, at an increased level. These efforts resulted in a lively participation of users in the “school on tomography using synchrotron radiation” which offered hands-on training on the BEATS beamline and was used by future users of BEATS to get familiar with preparation of experiments and samples.
With the subsequent procurement phase practically terminated at the end of the 2nd reporting period (from 01/07/2020 to 31/12/2021), during the 3rd reporting period, the activities of the BEATS consortium concentrated on the installation and commissioning of the beamline and its infrastructure, which comprised, among many other activities:
• The installation of the radiation protection infrastructure, the
• Installation of the x-ray source and the beam-shaping elements in the front end,
• Successful radiation tests,
• The installation of the beamline’s vacuum system, optical and experimental equipment, the IT infrastructure and control system.
This lead to the successful first tomography scans and experiments with friendly users on time in June 2023.
In parallel, during the whole duration of the project, activities on user community building continued, with the pandemic no longer substantially affecting travel and personal exchange, at an increased level. These efforts resulted in a lively participation of users in the “school on tomography using synchrotron radiation” which offered hands-on training on the BEATS beamline and was used by future users of BEATS to get familiar with preparation of experiments and samples.
The nature of the BEATS project (design and construction of a tomography beamline with the aim of using well established design principles taking into account the particular boundary conditions found at SESAME together with the particular needs of a user community just being established plus knowledge transfer and staff training) does of course not lead to any technical developments beyond the state of the art. However, this project has proven to have considerable socio-economic and societal impact:
The user community building activities strongly increased SESAME’s visibility and user community interest in the Middle East region and beyond.
SESAME’s research capacity was substantially increase, which has all potential to tighten the bonds between SESAME’s Members via peaceful scientific collaboration and common exploitation of resources.
BEATS continued the first-time and very fruitful collaboration between a blend of leading research facilities from the Middle East (SESAME, The Cyprus Institute), well established European synchrotron radiation facilities and high-energy laboratories (DESY, ELETTRA, ESRF, INFN, and PSI) with decades-long experience in synchrotron radiation research and technology, and most recently founded synchrotron laboratories (ALBA and SOLARIS)
With completing installation and commissioning, the beamline went successfully into operation, as planned, in early summer 2023 will be included into SESAME’s public user program via the upcoming next deadline for submission of beamtime proposals in Autumn 2023.
The user community building activities strongly increased SESAME’s visibility and user community interest in the Middle East region and beyond.
SESAME’s research capacity was substantially increase, which has all potential to tighten the bonds between SESAME’s Members via peaceful scientific collaboration and common exploitation of resources.
BEATS continued the first-time and very fruitful collaboration between a blend of leading research facilities from the Middle East (SESAME, The Cyprus Institute), well established European synchrotron radiation facilities and high-energy laboratories (DESY, ELETTRA, ESRF, INFN, and PSI) with decades-long experience in synchrotron radiation research and technology, and most recently founded synchrotron laboratories (ALBA and SOLARIS)
With completing installation and commissioning, the beamline went successfully into operation, as planned, in early summer 2023 will be included into SESAME’s public user program via the upcoming next deadline for submission of beamtime proposals in Autumn 2023.