ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin

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www.ill.fr

The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) is the world's leading research centre for research using neutron beams. Situated in Grenoble, France, the ILL has three founding partners, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and nine scientific partners, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The ILL operates the most intense neutron source in the world and unique advanced instrumentation that is used by scientists from the partner countries for fundamental and applied research.

But the ILL is "much more than simply neutrons". Its value and strength lies in how it uses its facilities and know-how to push forward scientific knowledge on a broad front. Its suite of 35 high performance instruments is used to probe the structure and dynamics of existing and newly created materials in the finest detail. The range of scientific disciplines covers fundamental and particle physics, condensed matter physics, magnetism, chemistry, biology, crystallography and materials science.

Its strength also lies in its ability to forge partnerships with other institutions to create synergies of common interest, such as the Partnership for Structural Biology. This centre of excellence in molecular biology brings together resources and expertise from the ILL, ESRF, EMBL and IBS (Institut de Biologie Structurale) to pursue an integrated programme in structural biology. It will include a unique biological deuteration laboratory for the preparation of deuterated macromolecules for use in neutron and NMR studies. Similarly, ILL and ESRF have jointly set up FaME38, a Facility for Materials Engineering which offers an expert interface enabling engineers make the best use of neutron and synchrotron facilities for materials engineering research.

Ten Collaborating Research Groups, operate specific instruments or facilities to carry out long-term research programmes using the neutron beams and infrastructure of the institute.

1,900 guest scientists use these facilities each year to carry out more than 750 experiments, carefully selected for their scientific merit by international peer-review committees. ILL scientists and their users publish around 600 articles each year in the international scientific press and in conference proceedings.