Australian Synchrotron Looks Close to Rescue. (February 24, 2012)

The question of the future of the Australian Synchrotron has reached the pages of Science with Elizabeth Finkel reporting in ScienceInsider as well as  Bernard Lane's previous write-up in  The Australian.

According the Dr Finkel, a spokesperson for federal science minister, Chris Evans, says there will be an announcement in the "near Future". It is expected that the new agreement will be extended through the Australian Research Council’s Special Research Initiative, which awards large grants to university consortia, and Monash University will lead the bid for funds according to its pro vice-chancellor for research and research infra structure, Ian Smith, who says that the synchrotron will need at least A$100 million just to operate over the next 4 years.

According to Dr Finkel the, "Special Research Initiative would provide about a quarter of the funds; universities would match that amount, and the remainder would come from the Victorian government, the New Zealand government, and three Australian government agencies".

However, as Mr Lane points out in his article: "Matters that still need resolution are the backlog of requests for time on the machine -- insufficient number of beamlines -- as well as upgrading to service a wider range of experiments in order to stay competitive and retain specialist staff. In short additional capital funding is required to bring the Synchrotron to full capacity, at present it is only realizing ~25% of its potential."