SESAME receives funding agreement for 2012-2016
Four members of Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East [SESAME] – Iran, Israel, Jordan and Turkey – have agreed to each provide contributions of $5 million USD towards the construction of the facility over the next four years. The decision, made during a meeting on 8 March has been well received by the SESAME members.
“The agreement on voluntary contributions will allow us to move ahead rapidly with the construction of SESAME and prepare for the first experiments in 2015/16,” said Khaled Toukan, the director of SESAME.
SESAME – which is hoped will foster international collaboration – is to be a major science facility, based around a 2.5 GeV electron storage ring, located near Amman, Jordan.
Commissioning of SESAME is being planned for – with four initial Beamlines – in 2015. These donations will go some way towards this aim, with the remaining $15 million required for procurement currently being sought from other SESAME members and from outside sources, such as the European Union, which has already donated $4.5 million; the United States; and a number of charitable foundations.
“The completion of SESAME will provide the region’s growing scientific community with a tool which will enable world-class research in a wide range of scientific disciplines,” said Chris Llewellyn Smith, the president of the SESAME council.
For more information, please visit the SESAME website.
