Boost for UK XFEL hopes as UKRI unveils research infrastructure plans

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has revealed details of major research infrastructure projects that it will invest in over the next three years. In total, the funder has earmarked £481 million for more than 30 projects across many different disciplines. ‘The UK is home to world-renowned facilities in a wide range of fields, which act as global hubs for research and innovation,’ said UKRI chief executive Ottoline Leyser. ‘We must ensure that we renew and upgrade that capability to keep pace with technological advances, empowering our researchers and innovators to go further faster.’

The funds will enable an upgrade to the Diamond Light Source facility in Oxfordshire, while researchers hoping to build an x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) in the UK have been given support to take the project to the conceptual design phase. More than £16 million has also been secured for a state-of-the-art 1.2GHz NMR spectrometer.