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| EUCALL | |
|---|---|
| Name | EUCALL |
| Type | Research consortium |
| Established | 2016 |
| Location | Europe |
| Focus | Synchrotron radiation, Free-electron lasers, Photon science |
| Members | European facilities, universities, industry |
EUCALL
EUCALL is a European consortium uniting major research infrastructures in synchrotron radiation and free-electron laser science with partner universities and industrial stakeholders. It coordinates access, transnational collaboration, and technology development among facilities such as European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, DESY, ESRF, MAX IV Laboratory, and ELI. The initiative fosters joint projects with institutions like CERN, FZJ, PSI, and companies in Siemens-related supply chains to accelerate research in photon-driven techniques and instrumentation.
EUCALL was created to integrate capabilities across landmark infrastructures—linking synchrotron light source operations at Danish National Synchrotron Facility, Sincrotrone Trieste, and ALBA-CELLS with European XFEL, LCLS-partner collaborations, and national laboratories such as ILL and Helmholtz Association institutes. The consortium emphasizes harmonized user access, common data policies aligned with FAIR data principles, and coordinated development of beamline instrumentation, sample environments, and detector technologies. EUCALL engages research programs in fields spanning materials science, structural biology, chemistry, and geoscience through collaborative networks including Horizon 2020 and pan-European research frameworks.
The project emerged amid strategic planning at organizations like ESRF and DESY during the mid-2010s, following discussions between directors from MAX IV Laboratory, PSI, and national research councils including CNRS and CNR. Formal launch activities coincided with European Commission calls under Horizon 2020 to support research infrastructure integration, drawing participation from facilities such as ELI Beamlines and European XFEL. Early milestones included harmonizing access agreements, publishing joint roadmaps with partners like Fermilab-affiliated teams, and piloting transnational access schemes modeled on consortia such as Instruct and LifeWatch.
EUCALL's governance mirrored frameworks used by ESFRI-listed projects and comprised a consortium board with representatives from national laboratories, universities, and industry partners such as Thales, Zeiss, and Carl Zeiss AG. Membership included major facilities: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, DESY, ESRF, MAX IV Laboratory, SOLEIL, ALBA-CELLS, Sincrotrone Trieste, PSI, ILL, and European XFEL affiliates, alongside university groups from University of Oxford, Universität Hamburg, Université de Grenoble Alpes, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Uppsala University. Advisory panels drew upon experts connected to CERN, Helmholtz Association, and funding bodies like European Research Council and national agencies such as STFC and ANR.
Participating installations offered complementary beamline types: hard X-ray diffraction and imaging at ESRF and European XFEL, soft X-ray spectroscopy at Soleil and Max IV, high-brightness femtosecond pulses at LCLS-linked facilities, and ultrafast pump–probe setups at ELI nodes. Detector systems included developments with manufacturers like Dectris and Andor Technology; sample environments ranged from cryogenic stages used at Institut Laue–Langevin to high-pressure cells akin to those in Diamond Light Source programs. Computational resources leveraged partnerships with centers such as PRACE and CSC - IT Center for Science for data analysis, tomography, and coherent diffraction imaging pipelines.
Research encompassed structural determination of proteins relevant to pharmaceutical industry targets, operando studies of battery materials linked to projects involving Toyota Research Institute-collaborators, and time-resolved investigations of phase transitions relevant to Siemens-scale devices. EUCALL-supported projects interfaced with initiatives like IMPACT and MaX (Materials design at the eXascale) for materials modelling, while collaborations with CINECA and EPCC enabled machine-learning approaches for beamline automation. Multidisciplinary campaigns addressed topics in paleontology using microtomography at ESRF and Sincrotrone Trieste, and catalysis research in partnership with Max Planck Society groups.
Training activities paralleled programs run by Instruct-ERIC and EMBL with schools, workshops, and hands-on beamtime courses hosted at partner sites such as DESY, MAX IV Laboratory, and ALBA-CELLS. Outreach included public engagement events coordinated with science museums like Deutsches Museum and Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, and summer schools linked to universities including University of Oxford and Uppsala University. EUCALL promoted knowledge transfer through joint publications with publishers associated to Nature Research and Elsevier journals and through contributions to policy dialogues at European Commission and European Research Council fora.
The consortium strengthened transnational user access models similar to ESFRI projects, increased instrument interoperability between European XFEL and synchrotron facilities, and accelerated detector and data-management standards adopted by partners like Dectris and Andor Technology. Research outcomes influenced industrial partnerships with Siemens and Thales, and academic outputs featured collaborations involving Max Planck Society, University of Cambridge, and ETH Zurich. EUCALL’s coordination supported cross-facility campaigns that informed strategic roadmaps at ESRF, DESY, and European XFEL and contributed to European research infrastructure integration priorities debated within Horizon Europe planning.
Category:Research consortia Category:European research infrastructure