Developing capacity in Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia in advanced nuclear science and technology techniques.

It is the intent of the present bid to provide the basis for a wider and longer term research relationship in nuclear physics and associated technologies with countries in the south, west and east of Africa. The principal aims of the bid are to a) strengthen collaboration in Nuclear Physics between physicists in the UK, South Africa and other African nations, b) transfer knowledge and skills between the collaborating parties and c) provide opportunities for education and training for African nations. The main focus will be on gamma-ray spectroscopy where both the UK and South Africa have expertise and will be based around the iThemba LABS (Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences) in South Africa which is the pre-eminent laboratory in the African continent for nuclear physics research.

Following the initial workshop, the next step will be to establish working collaborations which could include reciprocal visits for students and post-docs and longer term exchange visits by staff. In terms of the scientific research, the impact could be measured in terms of the number of new users at the experimental facilities at iThemba LABS, the number of new collaborative proposals for experiments at iThemba LABS on specific research topics and more broadly for an increased visibility in the international community for the scientists from Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. If appropriate, this workshop could be the first step in the procedure of joining major international collaborations such as the NUSTAR experimental pillar at the FAIR facility.

A parallel development which would have a big impact would be a collaboration between the National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA) and the UK National Physical Laboratory both of which have expertise in metrology and, of particular relevance for this proposal, in terms of techniques used for environmental monitoring of radiation. The development of new digital signal processing techniques which can discriminate between neutrons and gamma rays could have a big impact on this field.