HC Deb 04 March 1985 vol 74 cc370-1W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what resources he will make available to the Science and Engineering Research Council to enable it to participate in the European synchrotron radiation source.

Mr. Brooke

Synchrotron radiation complements neutron beams as ways of facilitating research in condensed matter. Both techniques require large and expensive facilities. The proposed European synchrotron radiation facility (ESRF) is one of a number of existing or proposed international, or potentially international, facilities which might contribute to such research. An agreement between European countries on the shared use and funding of all such facilities is desirable; discussions to that end have been held, and continue.

Meanwhile it is not necessarily the case that participation in the ESRF would of itself require significant additional resources; for instance, United Kingdom participation in the ESRF might be achieved at little or no additional cost the United Kingdom if other European countries agreed to participate in the SERC's spallation neutron source. if the ESRF did require additional resources, it would be for the SERC, and beyond that for my right hon. Friend advised by the Advisory Board for the Research Councils, to decide what priority to give it in relation to other calls on, respectively, SERC's grant-in-aid and the science budget as a whole.