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Agreement signed for cooperation between Neutrons Canada and the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering

On July 21, 2023, Neutrons Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering (CINS). The MOU outlines several areas of cooperation between the two organizations, including, for example:

  • CINS will play a formal advisory role to Neutrons Canada on its user facing programs and activities.
  • The parties will establish a user advisory committee with an official role in Neutrons Canada’s governance structure.
  • Neutrons Canada will regularly report to users and obtain user feedback through fora organized by CINS.
  • The parties will establish regular planning processes based on formal consultative procedures that build consensus on the neutron community’s priorities.
  • The parties will cooperate on organizing events for neutron users.
  • The parties will cooperate communications to government and the public.

Visit https://neutrons.ca/2023/07/26/agreement-signed-for-cooperation-between-neutrons-canada-and-the-canadian-institute-for-neutron-scattering/ to view the full article.

CINS Science Meeting – March 16th & 17th

CINS Science Meeting – March 16th & 17th

Registration remains open for the CINS Science Meeting to be held at McMaster University March 16th and 17th. We have a excellent program of invited talks from researchers across Canada and internationally.
Confirmed Speakers:

  • Marcella Berg (URegina)
  • Gavin Hester (BrockU)
  • Liz Kelley (NCNR)
  • Xiaodan Gu (U. Southern Mississippi)
  • Ben Tutolo (UCalgary)
  • Anand Yethiraj (MUN)
  • Jonathan Gaudet (NCNR)

There will also be a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) sponsored panel session on Building Expertise for Canadian Neutron Scattering.
Confirmed Panellists:

  • Bob Watts (VP of Indigenous Relations, Nuclear Waste Management Organization
  • Jodi Cooley (Executive Director, SNOLAB)

Please register before February 27th. Registration is free.

We encourage students to submit abstracts as there will be a ‘Best Student Talk’ award sponsored by the University of Windsor.

Register

We thank our sponsors:

National Neutron Strategy announcement

We are pleased to announce the release of “The National Neutron Strategy: A strategy to rebuild Canadian capacity for materials research with neutron beams.”  

The strategy represents the consensus of the community built over the past several years and was discussed in depth at the CNI-CIFAR 2020 Roundtable on a National Neutron Strategy in December 2020. The 4 key objectives of the strategy are:

1. Forge partnerships with high-brightness neutron sources in other countries;

2. Build on existing domestic capabilities, including full exploitation of the McMaster Nuclear Reactor (MNR), a medium-brightness neutron source;

3. Explore and invest in developing new neutron sources for the long term; and

4. Create a new, national governance and management framework for these activities.

This strategy is a basis for the national CFI 2023 Innovation Fund proposal led by the University of Windsor for neutron beam infrastructure, while early versions of the strategy supported the national CFI 2020 Innovation Fund award to McMaster University. Presently, 15 universities are founding Neutrons Canada as the central feature of strategic objective 4.

This strategy also serves as a basis for CINS to develop the Neutron Long-Range Plan (LRP). The Neutron LRP will be a realistic plan for the infrastructure investments needed to implement the national neutron strategy over the next decade and beyond.

The National Neutron Strategy is also available from the CNI’s page at http://neutrons.ca.

Long-Range Plan (LRP) for Canadian Neutron Scattering Launch Meeting Summary

The Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering (CINS), with support from McMaster University on behalf of the Canadian Neutron Initiative, held the launching meeting of A Long-Range Plan (LRP) for Canadian Neutron Scattering on March 10th. This was the first step to guide the development of Canadian neutron beam science over a 30 year horizon.  The need for such an LRP is clear considering major new funding for Canadian neutron beam science through a CFI project “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering”, other parallel initiatives and continuous advancements in neutron beam instruments, technologies and sources. This meeting was the first step in the consultative LRP exercise with the goal to yield a community-supported, specific, and realistic plan for the infrastructure investments, partnerships, training and policy developments needed to advance Canadian research that relies on neutron beams. The LRP will define a coherent national neutron program and help to earn the confidence of all potential stakeholders, including the Canadian research community, government, and foreign partners. 

We discussed the schedule for developing the LRP and the content. This meeting was the first opportunity for the Working Group Chairs to meet with their respective subject-specific working groups and begin collecting details on the needs and ambitions of the Canadian neutron beam community. Working Group Chairs will continue to work with their groups to determine how these important needs and ambitions can be met using both Canadian and international neutron sources in the coming decade, at least. 

 We wish to thank Dr. Art McDonald and all the presenters who took the time to make this meeting a success. Meeting materials can be found here.

Drew Marquardt (CINS President and U of Windsor)

Bruce Gaulin (McMaster University, PI CFI IF “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering”)

 

LRP 2022: Call For Expressions of Interest

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the call for expressions of interest (EOI) for the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering Long Range Plan for 2022-2050 (LRP2022). EOIs are due January 31th, 2022, via neutrons@mcmaster.ca

The LRP2022 will review the Canadian landscape of neutron beams for materials research, and will produce a list of recommended priorities for the decades to come. The CINS LRP2022 will provide single vision and unified voice for the highest priority projects in materials research using neutron beams in Canada to 2050.

We have launched a solicitation for EOIs to inform the LRP process. Chair’s of discipline specific sub-committees will review the EOIs and follow-up workshops will be held to refine the key neutron beam related needs for the different sub-committees to be synthesized into the LRP document.

Expressions of interest: An expression of interest (EOI) must be submitted in advance of the workshops. Please follow the template provided here. A EOI will be most effective and useful if it concisely summaries the idea, need or issue that the sub-committee chairs should be considering for prioritization.

Scope of EOIs: Topics may include (but are not limited to):
* instrumental needs
* foreign engagement
* auxiliary support
* science programs, science topics and science themes
* instrument design and development
* data analysis, data management and data storage
* funding issues (e.g. NSERC, CFI, funding policy for major research facilities)
* outreach, education and teaching
* training, careers, demographics and professional development
* equity, diversity and inclusion

Sub-Committees:
* Quantum Materials
* Soft Matter
* Energy Materials
* Imaging
* Industry

Authorship: Each EOI must have a designated author for contact purposes. Anonymous submissions will not be considered.

 

 

CINS AGM 2021

Save the date: 2021 CINS Annual General Meeting

November 29 and 30th

 

 

 

The 2021 CINS Annual General Meeting will be held virtually.  The meeting will run Monday, November 29th and Tuesday, November 30th, 2021 from 2 pm to 4 pm (Eastern).  For more details please refer to the meeting website at: cins.ca/agm-2021.  We look forward to seeing you virtually in November!

AGENDA

 

Day 1 Monday, November 29

  1. Welcoming remarks – Drew Marquardt (2pm-2:05)
  2. Remembering Bill Buyers – Zahra Yamani (2:05-2:20)
  3. CINS Business – Drew Marquardt (2:20-2:50)
    1. Introduce new Board
    2. Science Council Elections
  4. CFI-IF 2020 Update – Bruce Gaulin (2:50-3:25)
  5. CFI-IF 2023 Update – Drew Marquardt (3:25-4pm)
  6. Adjourned

Day 2 Tuesday, November 30

  1. Welcoming remarks (2pm-2:05)
  2. Neutron Scattering Long Range Plan Launch – Bruce Gaulin (2:05 pm-3 pm)
  3. Neutrons Canada Update – John Root (3:00-4pm )
  4. Adjourned

 

 

Registration

CINS Supports “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering, Phase 2”

Over the past two years, the University of Windsor has led a pan-Canadian effort to address Canada’s ongoing neutron needs in the CFI-IF 2023 competition. Considering previous engagements and the discussion at recent workshops, the CINS Executive Board proposed the following statement in support of the proposal to seek additional funding from CFI resources. In the subsequent online survey, CINS members were over 97% in favour of the statement.

Statement
CINS supports the University of Windsor’s multi-university, multi-disciplinary proposal to the CFI 2023 Innovation Fund (IF), entitled “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering, Phase 2,” because it is an essential contribution to the emerging national neutron strategy.

CINS has cooperated with the Canadian Neutron Initiative (CNI) working group in the development of a strategy to rebuild Canadian capacity for materials research with neutron beams. The Canadian neutron beam community is aligning around this strategy and is optimistic about the future, as demonstrated by active participation in the CNI national roundtable meeting in December 2020, and the CINS CFI & Road Map planning workshop in March 2021. The recent success of the pan-Canadian McMaster-led CFI 2020 IF award (i.e. Phase 1) represents a significant contribution towards the national neutron strategy.  This award will dramatically expand neutron scattering capacities at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, Canada’s only domestic source of neutron beams, and provide increased access for Canadian scientists at high brightness neutron sources abroad. Although this is an excellent start towards addressing Canada’s neutron needs, much more investment is still required to meet the national demand.

“Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering, Phase 2” has emerged as the natural next step for building Canadian neutron infrastructure, and the goals of this proposal already enjoy broad support among the user community. It advances key objectives of the national neutron strategy, including foreign partnerships that will leverage access to more critically-needed beam time and provide Canadians with world-leading capabilities complementary to those secured in Phase 1. It will also include the development of a prototype compact accelerator-based neutron source, which will enable Canada to explore the potential of this source technology and determine its place among the options for new domestic neutron sources in the long-term.  This prototype will add to Canada’s domestic neutron beam capabilities in the areas of neutron diffraction and Boron Neutron Capture Therapy. It will also play a unique role in developing Canadian expertise in pulsed neutron sources and instrumentation.

In order to brighten the future of neutron scattering for Canada, CINS will work with project leaders to organize and facilitate the necessary workshops to plan, and engage the community in, this project.

“Beam-based Probes of Condensed Matter Physics, Chemistry and Related Fields in Canada” Conference

TRIUMF_Logo_Blue

The Centre for Molecular and Materials Science (CMMS) at TRIUMF is organizing a virtual 2-day workshop for Thursday, June 3rd and Friday, June 4th. The motivation for this workshop is that TRIUMF is engaged in developing a 20-year vision for the laboratory and our stakeholders. There have been several areas where the community would benefit from contributions from TRIUMF, both scientifically and on technical elements. This in turn would provide the community enhanced options for studies outside of the existing program in μSR and βNMR, building new capabilities and synergies. All these ideas need to be put in context of national and international developments and competitiveness.  

This workshop is designed to enable researchers, professors and scientists at Canadian institutions and facilities to present and discuss developments, and learn from ideas at other facilities and in other research areas. It will provide opportunities for coordination and identification of new concepts. The workshop will have sessions on the following topics:

Thursday, June 3rd (all times in PDT)
08:00 – 10:00 Session 1: Novel capabilities with μSR
10:30 – 12:30 Session 2: Neutron scattering (with an accelerator-based source)
13:00 – 15:00 Session 3: Polarized radioactive isotopes
15:30 – 17:30 Session 4: Muonic X-ray analysis and μ-SR

Friday, June 4th (all times in PDT)
08:00 – 10:00 Session 5: Positron annihilation spectroscopy
10:30 – 12:30 Session 6: THz spectroscopy in Canada
13:00 – 15:00 Session 7: Synchrotron light sources
15:30 – 17:30 Session 8: μSR idea and concepts

Each session will have three 30-minute talks followed by 30 minutes for discussion. Between each session there will be a 30-minute break, where additional discussions can occur. A link to the Indico site can be found here: https://meetings.triumf.ca/indico/event/231/.  We are currently confirming the last of the invited speakers and contribution titles.

While there is no registration fee, registration is required for attendance to this conference. Please register by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, May 30th via the Indico site above. All registrants will be contacted via email on Monday, May 31st with the Zoom connection information.

Any questions can be directed to the Physical Sciences Division office at sciencediv@triumf.ca

CINS applauds the CFI award for the McMaster-led national project, “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering”

The Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering (CINS) is thrilled for the neutron beam community to receive a $14.25 million Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Innovation Fund grant project called, Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering.

“Researchers who use neutron beams are contributing to many key areas of technological innovation that is important to Canadians – from reducing greenhouse emissions, fighting cancer and antibiotic resistance to auto parts manufacturing – just to name a few,” says Drew Marquardt, president of the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering.

CINS along with the Canadian Neutron Initiative have helped coordinate this multi-institutional project by bringing together the Canadian neutron beam community.

“Projects of this scope cannot succeed without the entire community behind you,” says project lead Bruce Gaulin.  

“This grant breathes new life into the neutron scattering community in Canada. It will provide, not only, valuable material research tools but the ability to train the next generation of Canadian scientists ‘at home.’”

For a list of researchers across Canada willing to speak to reporters, contact Drew Marquardt at drew.marquardt@uwindsor.ca.

About CINS
CINS is a not-for-profit, voluntary organization that represents the Canadian scientific community of neutron beam users and promotes research using neutron beams. Discover neutrons for materials research at: http://cins.ca/discover/

For more information:

Drew Marquardt
Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Windsor
E drew.marquardt@uwindsor.ca