Intertek Caleb Brett has been appointed by CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory to conduct market research and to evaluate all options for establishing a sustainable synchrotron radiation service for industry
Under details recently announced by CCLRC, the use of the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) by UK academia is planned for phased reduction completing at the end of 2008 and this creates an opportunity for the capacity released to be made more available for commercial use.
The SRS at Daresbury, UK is a world class facility dedicated to the application of synchrotron radiation for analytical science, fundamental and applied research.
It offers a large mix of analytical techniques covering protein crystallography, small molecule and powder diffraction, circular dichroism, infra-red spectroscopy, scattering, photoemission and imaging.
The SRS provides radiation at a range of wavelengths extending from the infra-red to hard X-rays.
The tunable, high intensity properties of this source allows flexible and rapid data collection from small samples of all types and forms ranging from direct analysis of failed engine parts to the most complex of bio-molecules.
Daresbury SRS has an established customer base with users operating across a variety of scientific disciplines and important industrial problem solving research covering pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemistry, aerospace and defence, biology and biomaterials, consumer goods, electronics, materials, and oil and gas.
Although the majority of users of the SRS are currently from academia, industrial access is provided through the Daresbury Analytical Research and Technology Service (Darts).
The major focus of the market research with Intertek is to evaluate the commercial market demand and the preferred supply models for dedicated, analytical services to industry from its SRS facilities.
Intertek will take a fresh and comprehensive approach to the research to identify new potential industrial users who can benefit from this analytical technology combined with the years of background knowledge for industrial problem solving work which has been uniquely developed at Daresbury.
Amongst other tasks, Intertek will select and interview a cross section of a target user base categorised by factors including location, industry sector and technology.
As part of this research, potential customers are encouraged to provide feedback to Intertek Caleb Brett via email.
