Research And Development with Ion Beams – Advancing Technology in Europe

Project Information

RADIATE

Grant agreement ID: 824096

DOI

10.3030/824096

Project closed

EC signature date 20 November 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures

Total cost

€ 9 999 669,24

EU contribution

€ 9 999 669,24

Coordinated by

HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM DRESDEN-ROSSENDORF EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - RADIATE (Research And Development with Ion Beams – Advancing Technology in Europe)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Research Infrastructure Project RADIATE brings together fifteen partners from public research, two SMEs and two other private entities with the aim to sustainably structure the European Research Area in the field of ion technology application and innovation. Largely complementary national ion beam facilities are integrated into one single virtual multi-sited ion beam centre providing unprecedented research capabilities for scientists from anywhere in Europe and beyond. The application of ion beams for materials modification and analysis contributes to a large variety of different research fields in
• Physics
• Material Science
• Engineering and Technology
• Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Life Sciences and Biology
• Information and Communication Technology
• Chemistry
• Energy
and, thus, addresses a manifold of present-day technological developments and problems of profound societal interest. Main objectives of the project are:
• Provision of easy, flexible and efficient access for researchers from academia and industry to Europe’s key ion beam facilities
• Opening Europe’s ion beam facilities to users from new communities and young researchers, and widening the services for users
• Increasing the visibility and the awareness of ion beam facilities in Europe and creating an Ion Beam Web Portal as a common platform for information
• Supporting experienced and new users of ion beam facilities in handling and analysing their data by providing ion beam related software and databases
• Intensifying and consolidating the cooperation between European ion beam centers
• Expanding the cooperation with ion beam centers outside Europe
• Further developing and upgrading the ion beam infrastructures
• Consolidating and widening the access to the ion beam centers by European industry
• Cooperating with other European infrastructure communities
• Shaping the European Research Area by achieving long-term sustainability of the ion beam centers

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The achievements of RADIATE are mostly in line with the work packages and tasks as set out in the Grant Agreement (GA). All 7 milestones have been reached. 78 out of 83 deliverables have been accomplished mostly in time or with minor delays.
• The Ion Beam Web Portal (https://www.ionbeamcenters.eu/) has been created and continuously updated. The portal serves as an ion technology platform for and beyond RADIATE. Its public section informs about the consortium and the progress of the project. It displays dissemination products, allowed to submit proposals for TA, and accepted applications for training actions. It offers a comprehensive list of software related to ion beam optics, ion beam analysis and simulation of ion-solid interaction. It is being maintained by the Coordinator after the termination of RADIATE. Non-RADIATE facilities have been actively invited to be listed on the website.
• The user request for TA at 12 infrastructures has exceeded the expectations at the beginning of the project significantly despite of the restrictions by the COVID-19 pandemic. For 492 user proposals accepted by the User Selection Panel, a total of 19.584 user hours has been delivered. 347 scientists took part in hands-on user campaigns, while 35% of the campaigns were conducted in hands-off mode.
• Averaging between 40-80 visitors a day, the ion beam web portal - just as the bi-annually published newsletter - has been a key resource for information about the project to the ion beam community and beyond. RADIATE partners were present at numerous conferences raising awareness for transnational access and reaching new user groups. Successes have been achieved particularly in the atmospheric aerosol research community for using ion beam techniques for their studies. The RADIATE training programs were majorly hindered by COVID-19. Despite this, several twinning and guest researcher stays could be realized in 2022 and 2023. To raise awareness of the project and the various ion beam techniques, two animated movies geared toward the general public were commissioned during the project runtime featuring ion beam analysis and accelerator mass spectrometry. The latter one is currently gathering traction, for example, in the Australian AMS community and will in future be used to demonstrate the technique and its possibilities.
• In the final phase of the project, RADIATE has set up a Long-Term Sustainability Plan for European ion beam laboratories. Most of the infrastructures expect their institutional funding to remain stable or to increase moderately. They will actively take part in new thematic programmes by the European Union. The majority of the RADIATE infrastructures dedicate a major fraction of their total beamtime (between 10% and 60%) to industrial cooperation and services, which is considered to be essential for future sustainability. The IonBeamCenters.eu website created by RADIATE will be maintained and extended by HZDR as a forum of communication and information around the European ion beam centers community.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

• Partly with essential contributions from the industrial beneficiaries of the consortium, Joint Research Activities (JRA) have upgraded equipment and extended the portfolio of ion beam applications being available for Transnational Access to users. The spatial resolution of analytical microbeam setups has been significantly improved. New or advanced techniques for the detection of ion-induced X-rays with high energy resolution allow, e.g. new contamination studies of biological tissues in ecology. In Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, the detection sensitivity for specific isotopes with relevance for, e.g. nuclear waste processing and radioecology has been drastically enhanced. In particular for irradiation of 2D materials, a new device for ultralow-energy implantation has been constructed. Significant progress was achieved in the positioning and detection of single-ion implantation for quantum technology. New multidetector/multitechnique arrangements in connection with corresponding software developments, which are partly based on advanced machine-learning algorithms, enhance the sensitivity of conventional Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry significantly, and, making use of heavy-molecule ion production, enable correlative imaging of elemental and molecular biomarkers. A deep-learning algorithm has also been developed to recognize and track individual living cells in radiobiological irradiation studies.
• In order to promote the exploitation of research results in selected European countries with minor industrialization, RADIATE has set up an Innovation Management program at three beneficiaries in Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Promising hardware items were identified with business plans being developed, which resulted in several sales to customers. Intentions to obtain intellectual property rights failed so far due to missing funds. However, in accelerator technology for radiobiological irradiation, one European patent has been filed, and another one has been applied for.

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