Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C008847/1
Title:	FaME38 - Exploitation and Development of the Joint Support Facility for Materials Engineering at the ILL-ESRF as a UK Collaborative Research Group
Principal Investigator:	James, Professor M
Other Investigators:	Korsunsky, Professor AM Swallowe, Dr G Dye, Professor D Preuss, Professor M O'Dowd, Professor NP Yates, Professor JR Edwards, Professor L Nowell, Professor D Akid, Professor R Withers, Professor P Sinclair, Professor I Fitzpatrick, Professor M
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Sch of Marine Science & Engineering
Organisation:	University of Plymouth
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 July 2005	Ends:	30 June 2006	Value (£):	467,460
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Materials Characterisation
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Aerospace, Defence and Marine Manufacturing Energy Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The ILL and the ESRF are respectively the European centres for neutron and synchrotron research and are located on a shared site in Grenoble, France. They are each amongst the best in the world in their fields and jointly they provide a unique resource for research using neutron and synchrotron radiation. The UK is a principal partner in each facility through the CCLRC/EPSRC. Use of synchrotron and neutron radiation to advance understanding of engineering problems is a fast growing field, particularly in established areas like strain scanning and, increasingly, real-time tomography. Beamlines are not in general designed for engineering research, and the potential impact of the facilities in the academic and industrial engineering research community is limited because visiting engineers generally do not have an appropriate or sufficient scientific background, and most beamline scientists do not have the specialist engineering knowledge required to provide the extra support that engineering users require.FaME38 is a joint support Facility for Materials Engineering that was established on the ILL-ESRF site with EPSRC Grant GR/R48070/01 (1,656,961) and matching support from the ILL and ESRF. The project is led by the Principal Investigator, Professor P J Webster (50% part-time) and commenced on 1 December 2001. FaME38 employs three postdoctoral researchers, an administrator and a technician. A 30-month review of FaME38 was carried out in May 2004 by a panel of leading independent international experts, with representation from the EPSRC and the CCLRC. In the Review Report (Appendix 1) the panel unamimously agreed that FaME38 was on course to fully meet its stated objectives, and that continuation of the activity during a transitional phase, which had a clear vision and objectives for securing a long-term future for FaME38, should be supported by the UK funding council.Phase 2 of the FaME38 project will seek to firmly embed scientific use of neutron and synchrotron radiation into wider 'user' sections of the UK engineering research community, and to secure a long term future within the ILL and ESRF structures. Accessibility, usability and data output quality will be enhanced in areas like the application of strain scanning and real-time tomography to the important fields of life prediction, improved manufacturing processes, understanding of process-performance interactions and in-situ measurements (cracks, high temperature). FaME38 will provide an 'intelligent' interface between physicists, materials scientists, and engineers to provide optimised use of beam time allocations. This encompasses 'virtual' interfacing of components and instruments off-line with standardised mounting, development of technical capability of instruments and software, and high level on-site support through personnel and specialised facilities. The outcome from FaME38 will be fast, precise, simple and appropriate measurements suitable for engineering practice and solutions. This advancement of technology in engineering applications of neutron and synchrotron radiation will enable the consortium to exploit its facilities in making significant advances over a wide range of challenges in engineering science as described in Section 4 of the Case for Support.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.plym.ac.uk