News from the European neutron community at LENS General Assembly

n 17 February, LENS welcomed the international neutron scattering community to find out more about the collaboration’s activities as part of the General Assembly. The half-day meeting, which was the first open General Assembly since 2019, was attended by nearly 200 participants from over 15 countries worldwide.

Opening the meeting, LENS Chair, Robert McGreevy, set the stage for the day’s meeting with a brief report on the general neutron landscape in Europe. Robert also shared key updates from member facilities, and explained the impact of the pandemic on the collaboration’s overall activity.

Robert then introduced a series of talks from LENS’ Working Groups, which included work in industry outreach, developments in hardware and data, efforts in communication and promotion, and an update on submissions to Horizon Europe calls. (A copy of the presentations can be found below.) There was excellent engagement from participants throughout the meeting.

On 18 February, facility directors and senior representatives convened online for LENS’ Council meeting. During the closed meeting, members shared more details of facilities’ recent and planned activities, which fed into discussions around the structure and scope of LENS’ Working Groups.

Another key topic of discussion was the LENS ‘vision’ document, which is currently in preparation. The document addresses the current and future neutron landscape in Europe, highlighting the importance of a strong and diverse ecosystem of neutron facilities in science and innovation. The publication, which has received input from across LENS membership and beyond, will be available summer 2022, as a deliverable of the BrightnESS² project.

LENS Council will be meeting again at the end of April 2022 for hybrid meeting coinciding with the UK Neutron & Muon Science and User Meeting (NMSUM) 2022.