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X-ray science and providing the international research community with new opportunities to tackle the complex, global challenges facing our societies.

The ESRF Management and staff have continued efforts to optimise the operation of the EBS and the beamline portfolio, and to provide users with the best services to exploit the possibilities of EBS, considering the resources available, the complex geopolitical context and its impact in Europe. Despite the challenges we face to maintain the sustainability of the ESRF in the medium- and long- term, our goal is to continue bringing X-ray science into new research domains and applications for the benefit of an increasingly diverse synchrotron user community. Moreover, with its upgrade and its new storage ring, the ESRF is once more as it was in 1994 a source of inspiration for the vast panorama of synchrotron laboratories worldwide, and in particular for Europe, where nearly all synchrotron laboratories have announced their desire to follow in the ESRF s footsteps and upgrade their facilities using the HMBA concept. Therefore, the ESRF will have the opportunity and responsibility to support the European synchrotron radiation user community during the reconstruction and commissioning phases of other European sources. This is a big challenge, and the ESRF is very happy to offer its services to the community in these changing times. In this context, it needs to be underlined that the crisis hitting the European economy, with major

energy cost and inflation increases, needs to be dealt with in order to maintain the necessary resources to guarantee the operation of the ESRF and the developments necessary to ensure its medium- and long-term attractiveness in Europe and in the world.

ESRF-EBS is for the ESRF users! This fantastic accomplishment is directly linked to a new generation of ESRF scientists, engineers and support staff, who have benefitted from the immense experience of many ESRF staff who constructed ESRF in the 1988-1994 period, continuously improved it during its 1994-2018 operation period, and finally made the ESRF-EBS storage ring a reality. Many of these colleagues have retired during the past few years, or will be retiring shortly. I would like to thank them wholeheartedly for the dedication, motivation and skills that they put to the service of the ESRF. ESRF is, first of all, a story of people, and then of the first-of- a-kind technology that these people working together made possible. In 2024, Jean-Claude Biasci, head of the Instrumentation Services and Development Division, will retire. His contribution is a perfect and most visible example of the dedicated service that we see in people at the ESRF, who make our facility a place where every day is the beginning of a new adventure.

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to you, our users, for your continued interest and enthusiasm. It is thanks to you that we continue to innovate, to drive forward knowledge and progress together, for the benefit of all. We are grateful to be able to present to you this ESRF Highlights 2023, a round-up of the past year s most exciting research. I hope you will enjoy reading it and that it will inspire you for your next experiment at the ESRF.

Francesco Sette, ESRF Director General

The ESRF is a source of inspiration for synchrotrons worldwide.

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