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The study measures and demonstrates Diamond’s scientific, technological, societal, and economic benefits.
A recent study by Technopolis and Diamond estimates a cumulative monetised impact of at least £1.8 billion from the UK’s synchrotron, reflecting very favourably with the £1.2 billion investment made in the facility to date. And it costs less than a cup of coffee as each taxpayer contributes only £2.45 a year towards it. The study, published today (26 May), set out to measure and demonstrate Diamond’s scientific, technological, societal, and economic benefits. The report summarises the findings and highlights the significant impact it has achieved to date.
Diamond’s mission is to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research. We do this by providing our users in academia and industry access to our state-of-the-art facilities enabling them to fulfil their research goals across a wide variety of scientific disciplines. This report illustrates the fantastic benefits the facility has delivered and brilliant science being achieved by our 14,000-strong user community, who are tackling some of the most challenging scientific questions of the 21st century. We are so grateful to our funding agencies UKRI’s STFC and the Wellcome for their trust and ongoing support.
Chief Executive of Diamond, Professor Andrew Harrison OBE
Diamond is an asset to STFC’s world-leading science estate at RAL. With support from STFC, the Diamond research facility continues to deliver both economic growth and research impact on behalf of the UK. It brings together the best of British science, as well as fostering multi-disciplinary research activity with a wide range of global collaborators. Diamond continues to deliver against real-world challenges, with some of their recent successes including enhancing our understanding of the COVID-19 virus.
Professor Mark Thomson, Executive Chair of STFC
Diamond was set-up as an independent not for profit company through a joint venture, between the UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, the Wellcome Trust - each respectively owning 86% and 14% of the shareholding.
Some of the highlights from the report include:
Diamond has delivered world-leading scientific advances through the innovation and excellence of the people who built and operate the synchrotron, in collaboration with the UK’s scientific community. The report highlights the real-world impact of Diamond’s leading research and the continued efforts that it makes to engage the wider public, complementing Wellcome’s mission to solve the most urgent health challenges facing everyone.
Tom Collins, Acting Head of Genetics and Molecular Sciences at Wellcome
Diamond is clearly a critical piece of the UK’s national infrastructure, providing cutting-edge imaging and testing capabilities for a wide variety of fields and sectors. The importance of the facility, to both UK academics and businesses, was obvious from the users and stakeholders that we consulted, who were highly positive about the quality of Diamond’s offer (both the technical capabilities and the accompanying support services). Capturing, demonstrating and measuring the broad range of benefits that flow from such investments is no easy task, but this is an essential part of the responsibility for the use of public funds.
We commend Diamond for its enthusiasm to better understand its impact, as well as to further developing its monitoring and evaluation activities going forward, such that it is even better placed in future to capture the manifold benefits that it enables.
Neil Brown, Managing Consultant at Technopolis
Neil Brown, Charlotte Glass, Paul Simmonds, Cristina Rosemberg, Vivek Seth, Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, et al. (2021, May 26). Socio-Economic Impact Study of Diamond Light Source. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4769840
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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