The Cockcroft Institute - An International Centre for Accelerator Research and Development serving aspirations of science and society

The Cockcroft Institute proposes to : (i) perform generic and blue-sky research and development (R&D), spearheading the next bold steps in the conception of particle accelerators in the service of particle, nuclear, photon and neutron sciences; (ii) perform project specific R&D in Accelerator Science and Technology on large scale scientific facilities in UK or abroad approved nationally and internationally such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, TeV scale Electron-Positron Linear Collider, Neutrino Factories and Muon Colliders, High Luminosity Meson Factories, Superconducting Heavy Ion Linear Accelerators for Nuclear Physics such as HIE-ISOLDE at CERN, facilities for Anti-matter research such as FAIR; next generation photon sources such as the NLS and next generation neutron sources such as the ESS and ISIS upgrades; (iii) lead and manage national deliverables to international projects such as the luminosity upgrades of the Large Hadron Collider, Damping Rings and Positron Sources for the TeV scale electron-positron collider, the International Design Study of a Neutrino factory; potential accelerator systems for the FAIR project; (iv) spearhead novel collider and accelerator concepts to probe deeper into the nature of matter such as the Large Hadron-electron Collider (LHeC) at CERN; (v) explore the fundamental limits of particle acceleration gradient, coldest charged particle beams and the brightest beams achievable in the laboratory; (vi) advance the frontier of technology in meta-materials, lasers, plasmas and photonics for the next generation of particle accelerators; (vii) develop internationally acknowledged and competitive expertise, core competencies and complementary skills base in UK; (viii) implement Knowledge Exchange with industry and society, serving as a National Accelerator Development Centre addressing current issues in Energy (alternative energy sources such as Accelerator Driven Subcritical Reactors), Environment (Artificial Transmutation of Waste) and Health (accelerators for particle beam cancer therapy); (ix) integrate seamlessly academia, national research facilities and industry via incubation; (x) educate and train the next generation of enabling scientists and engineers for UK.