Diamond Light Source - Annual Review 2022/23

4 5 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 / 2 3 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 / 2 3 CEOWelcome 2 022 has been a year filled with many changes. As CEO, for an interim period, I took over from Professor Andrew Harrison last November to navigate the transition whilst Shareholders look for a long-term appointment. I have been on Diamonds Board as an Executive Director since April 2019. Diamond has been delivering excellent science in collaboration with its user community, fostering knowledge that is addressing many of our global challenges. Diamond now has 33 operational beamlines, which together with complementary facilities – eBIC, ePSIC, the MPL together with the XChem Fragment Screening service and the XFEL Hub - provide a truly integrated facility for virtually every field of science. The switch from pandemic to endemic in the management of the coronavirus has meant a slowdown in our normal activities. The past year saw us increase our total of peer reviewed journal articles to some 12,384. This is a slower increase than expected as the effects of the lost measurements during the pandemic are starting to affect our numbers. Last year, there were 9,193 user visits to Diamond via academic access routes. In the last financial year, we received 1,906 proposals for experiments on beamlines and electron microscopes, which requested a total of 24,252 shifts. This resulted in 15,413 experimental shifts being awarded, spread across the 33 operational beamlines and seven of the electron microscopes. Within academia, 5,279 of our user visits were on-site visits, while the remaining 42% (3,914) were done via remote access. We have seen reassuring signs of recovery with more beamtime to users being delivered but not yet to the full levels we reached prior the start of the pandemic. As new challenges emerge like the heightened threat of industrial action, the path to full recovery will take time. Recruitment and retention of our staff is now a major issue. With turnover levels increasing, I am working closely with our chairman to raise these issues at the highest levels with our shareholders. Like many other STEM institutes; we are faced with this issue, but we are working tirelessly to bring this issue to the attention of the UK Government to help us address this challenge. In autumn 2022 we presented an update of our socioeconomic impact report at the International Conference of Research Infrastructures in Czech Republic. The report was initially published in May 2021 and undertaken by Technopolis together with representatives from our funding agencies. The report has become an influential piece of work within the research infrastructure community with many learning from its methodology and approach. With over 14,000 researchers interested in using our instruments, our position remains very strong given that Diamond has for the period 2007- 2022 achieved a cumulative monetised impact of at least £2.6 billion whilst remaining extremely good value for money for the UK taxpayer who each contribute less than the cost of a cup of coffee each year. These tremendous benefits are a credit to our dedicated staff, contractors and agency workers who enable innovation, push the boundaries of what can be measured and offer excellent support and service to the science delivered internally as well as externally. The financial year 2022-23 also marked our double anniversary – 20 years since the company was started and 15 years of research and innovation together with our user community. In broad terms, the public ultimately pay the taxes that underpin 86% of our funding.We celebrated in part with a large outdoor photo exhibition showcasing some of the beautiful imagery created over the years.We have started again to open our doors to the public, allowing them to see our incredible science and engineering, but more importantly, to experience the range of careers involved with Diamond's operation. We have welcomed over 80,000 visitors since opening in 2007, and it is always astounding how much interest the public show in our work, and humbling to think that many of the young people we are showing around the facility could soon be working here. Diamond is not only a visible landmark in the Oxfordshire landscape but has also become a cornerstone of the Harwell Campus with key investment being brought close to us for synergy. The Diamond-II upgrade programme is an integrated upgrade of the synchrotron, beamlines and computational facilities, which is critical to maintaining our world-leading status. We further progressed with the first phaseof fundingallocatedbyUKRI andScienceandTechnology Facilities Council (STFC) andWellcome in June 2022. A major milestone in securing full funding from the UK Government was achieved in November 2021 with approval of the Outline Business Case (OBC) by the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT). This approval built on an early commitment of support fromWellcome for their funding share. This past year saw us deliver the Technical Design Report (TDR) for the machine, alongside Conceptual Design Reports (CDRs) for three flagship beamlines. As we put our finishing touches to the Full Business Case (FBC), which is due for review in June 2023 by the Programme Investment Committee at the newly formed Department for Science Innovation andTechnology (DSIT), if approved, will move on to HMTreasury for final approval for release of full funding for the Programme. We are grateful to Dr Richard Walker, who took a lead as Interim Senior Responsible Owner for his leadership of the machine TDR and the FBC. This upgrade will increase electron beam energy from 3.0 to 3.5 GeV will provide up to a factor of 70 increase in brightness and coherence of Diamond’s photon beams at the higher energies. As I lead the organisation towards steps ever closer to its upgrade, I remain determined to see Diamond positioned at the forefront of scientific research in the UK, Europe and on a global stage. Science is ultimately a collaborative endeavour to better our lives, and in Diamond’s case, the team remains focused on playing a key role in addressing 21 st century global challenges. AndreaWard FCMA CEO & Director of Finance and Corporate Services Diamond Light Source As I lead the organisation towards steps ever closer to its upgrade, I remain determined to see Diamond positioned at the forefront of scientific research in the UK, Europe and on a global stage. Artist’s impression.