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E. Mitchell. ESRF.

Opening the doors for SMEs to use advanced synchrotron X-ray techniques

Since 2015, the CALIPSOplus Horizon2020 project has run a pilot programme called TamaTA - Tailor-made for SMEs Trans-national Access . TamaTA aimed to open the doors of European light sources for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but with subsidised access permitted through European rules, while allowing data and results to be kept confidential.

The programme was run by the ALBA and ESRF light sources, with the administrative load taken on by the ALBA industry office team. Access proposals were made through an easy-to-use, single-entry, multi-language portal on the wayforlight.eu website, with the proposal process kept simple and short to match industry expectations. To fit with EU funding rules, proposals were evaluated by external experts with experience in X-ray applications for commercial R&D challenges. If the proposal was approved, a voucher was issued by the light source including the number of beam time hours and support hours needed for the experiment.

Although, due to the ESRF-EBS upgrade programme, the ESRF was closed for a significant period of the TamaTA programme, the ESRF nonetheless welcomed over 10 SMEs via TamaTA supported access across a wide variety of industry sectors. The programme as a whole

received 36 proposals. Even in September and October 2021, just before the CALIPSOplus programme finished on 31 October, the ESRF welcomed three SMEs through the TamaTA programme: Takis Biotech (Italy), using the ID23-2 microfocus beamline for work on COVID-related structural biology. Scandiflash (Sweden), using ID19 s high-speed radiography to acquire a reference data set as a standard against their own X-ray flash system Hey Planet (Denmark), using BM05 micro-CT for textural information on insect- derived food ingredients.

Two of these SMEs, Takis Biotech and Hey Planet, worked in cooperation with expert knowledge providers, La Sapienza and DTI respectively, which provided scientific and technical support complementing the ESRF s X-ray expertise, giving an overall all-round service for the SMEs concerned. This mixture of research infrastructure plus industry plus academic (university, RTO or technology infrastructure) is an increasingly valuable feature of industry engagement, allowing a wider set of enterprises to effectively benefit from research infrastructure skills and services.

Having demonstrated the value of providing SMEs with a tailored access to catalyse use of advanced research infrastructure characterisation techniques, the TamaTA programme is now continuing via the LEAPS INNOV Horizon2020 programme as TamaTA INNOV with the first call for proposals already open on www.wayforlight.eu/en/ industries.