STFC Meet the buyer: CERN experiments and future projects Julie Bellingham Head of Business Opportunities for International Facilities Science and Technology Facilities Council
Science and Technology Facilities Council STFC was formed in 2007 and is one of seven national research councils in the UK. STFC: funds the best research in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics. enables the research community to have access to the best facilities in the world. increases the UK technology capability, engagement with industry and knowledge transfer.
Science and Technology Facilities Council The STFC coordinates and manages the UK s involvement and subscription with CERN. UK membership of CERN allows: Our physicists and engineers access to the experiments UK industry to bid for contracts UK nationals to compete for jobs and research positions at CERN (UK scientists hold many key roles at CERN). UK schools and teachers to visit.
Situated on the border of Switzerland and France Founded in 1954 (60 years old this year) 21 Member States and 6 observer states Annual budget: ~1 billion CHF (~ 650M) Procurement budget of over 300M annually CERN
CERN maintains the accelerator complex - a succession of machines that accelerate particles to increasingly higher energies. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the last element in this chain. The LHC is 27km circumference and 50 150m below ground. A proton in the LHC makes 11,245 laps every second. The LHC produces head on collisions of particles which are observed by huge detectors, including ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb.
Winning contracts from CERN CERN is an intergovernmental organisation and can set its own procurement rules. It seeks to procure supplies which are manufactured in CERN member states, or services where the company is established in a CERN member state. As the industry liaison to CERN, I help UK companies respond to tenders at CERN and make contacts (see seminar later!) A wide range of UK companies have won tenders at CERN UK companies have won over 51M in contracts from CERN over the last three years (2011 2013).
CERN requirements 320M CHF 209M
The CERN experiments The CERN experiments are separate organisations to CERN and they have members from across the World. Funding agencies from countries involved in the experiments are responsible for the financing, construction and operation of the experiments on which they collaborate. CERN only partially contributes to the cost of the experiments. STFC funds UK contributions to CERN experiments through particle and nuclear physics grants. The experiments may chose to use CERN s procurement systems or procure through their home institute.
ATLAS A Toroidal Large Hadron Collider Apparatus ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that is searching for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS is a virtual United Nations of 38 countries. These physicists come from more than 177 universities and laboratories and include 1000 students.
ATLAS The University of Birmingham University of Sussex Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow Lancaster University University of Liverpool Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London University College London University of Manchester Oxford University STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory University of Sheffield University of Warwick
CMS Compact Muon Solenoid The CMS detector uses a huge solenoid magnet to bend the paths of particles from collisions in the LHC. It is a general-purpose detector designed to investigate a wide range of physics, including the search for the Higgs boson, extra dimensions, and particles that could make up dark matter.
CMS University of Bristol Brunel University Imperial College London STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory One of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, involving 4300 particle physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from 182 institutes in 42 countries (February 2014).
LHCb Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) The LHCb experiment will shed light on why we live in a universe that appears to be composed almost entirely of matter, but no antimatter. Instead of surrounding the entire collision point with an enclosed detector, the LHCb experiment uses a series of subdetectors to detect mainly forward particles - those thrown forwards by the collision in one direction.
LHCb University of Birmingham University of Bristol University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow Imperial College London University of Liverpool University of Manchester University of Oxford STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory University of Warwick
ALICE A large ion collider experiment ALICE detects quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter thought to have formed just after the big bang 37 countries, 151 institutes, 1550 members University of Birmingham STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory STFC Daresbury Laboratory University of Liverpool
Future projects - CLIC The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) study is an international collaboration working on a concept for a machine to collide electrons and positrons (antielectrons) head-on at energies up to several teraelectronvolts (TeV). This energy range is similar to the LHC s, but using electrons and their antiparticles rather than protons, physicists will gain a different perspective on the underlying physics.
CLIC John Adams Institute, Oxford University Royal Holloway University of London Lancaster University Manchester University Dundee University ASTeC, STFC Daresbury Laboratory
Thank you!