Core Equipment to leverage world class National Crystallography Service facilities

该建议确定了要添加到NCS最先进设备基础中的附件，以提供全新的功能，然后作为一项服务广泛交付。这项技术的开发和交付与核心设备“支撑多用户设备”的主题相一致。再加上支持和支持ECR和博士生的既定途径，NCS直截了当地解决了这次电话会议的目标。NCS是一个世界知名的机构，拥有庞大的用户基础，也是将建立的第一个国家研究机构(1981)。它非常适合于最大限度地提高核心设备投资的效益和受益者，是一种覆盖全国的先进设施，是维护和扩大其用户基础的既定、协调的方法。它是世界领先的，具有开创性发展的记录，这些发展已被广泛采用或纳入仪器，使整个社区受益。NRF模式提供准入机制、专家支持、监测、治理和可持续的运营模式，以确保这项投资将充分实现其最大潜力。主要项目，一个气候控制的电子衍射样品保持器和一个能量色散光谱仪，被确定为最近由EPSRC战略设备计划资助的电子衍射仪的附件。这将是世界上第一个可供学术界使用的此类专用仪器，并将开辟纳米晶体单晶结构分析的新领域。因此，核心设备投资利用这一突出地位，开创了基于这项新技术的全新能力：在收集纳米晶体原子分辨率结构信息的同时，进行现场元素分析、获取高温和控制气体环境的能力。最近，NCS开发了一种技术和设施来提供新颖的“水晶海绵”技术。这是一个与默克和Rigaku合作的联合开发/影响项目，可以获取纳米升材料或不易结晶的物质的结构数据。目标受众是制药行业，但随着它成为NCS的一个新组成部分，以及已经建立的战略合作伙伴关系，其目标是开发并向学术界交付，并发展新的结晶学用户群体。高效液相色谱仪将为NCS向学术界提供这项技术提供基础，使其能够处理范围更广的化合物和具有各种纯度水平的混合物。申请的最后一件物品是更换一台已有20年历史的热舞台显微镜，该显微镜符合“投资拯救”的主题，并支持一系列先进技术和教学活动。通过最近的社区咨询活动评估了对这些能力的愿望，最引人注目的是NCS社区的需求声明和收集对国家电子衍射设施的支持。它们也被视为非政府组织正式治理和审查程序的一部分。NCS在社区中的独特地位和覆盖范围将使其能够通过其核心业务、先进的方法和技术开发工作最大限度地扩大这种设备的受益者数量。庞大的现有用户群覆盖了博士生和ECR，他们都有机会接受这种设备提供的技能培训。总而言之，在能够继续维持高水平的服务提供的情况下，NCS还可以通过完善的路线和明确确定的影响路径来为这项投资增加重大价值。这不仅是通过其现有的用户社区，而且是通过接触许多新用户和全球社区，特别是通过与主要行业和仪器制造商的伙伴关系。

This proposal identifies accessories to be added to the NCS state-of-the-art equipment base to provide entirely new capabilities to then be delivered widely as a service. This technique development and delivery aligns to the Core Equipment 'underpinning multi-user equipment' theme. Coupled with established routes to supporting and enabling ECRs and doctoral students, the NCS squarely addresses the objectives of this call. The NCS is a world-renowned facility with a large user base and the first National Research Facility to be established (1981). It is ideally suited to maximising the benefits and beneficiaries of Core Equipment investment, being an advanced facility with a national reach and an established, coordinated approach to maintaining and expanding its user base. It is a world-leader with a track record of pioneering developments that have been widely adopted or incorporated into instrumentation to benefit the whole community. The NRF model provides access mechanisms, expert support, monitoring, governance and a sustainable operating model to ensure that this investment will be fully realised to its maximum potential. The main items, a climate-controlled sample holder for electron diffraction and an energy dispersive spectrometer, are identified as accessories for an electron diffractometer recently funded via the EPSRC Strategic Equipment scheme. This will be the first dedicated instrument of its type in the world available to the academic community and will open up the new field of single crystal structure analysis of nanocrystals. Core Equipment investment therefore leverages this prominent position to pioneer entirely new capabilities based on this new technique: the ability to perform in-situ elemental analysis, access high temperatures and control the gaseous environment all while collecting atomic-resolution structural information on a nanocrystal. Recently the NCS has developed skills and a facility to deliver the novel 'Crystal Sponge' technique. This is a joint development/impact project partnering with Merck and Rigaku, which enables acquisition of structural data on nanolitres of material or substances that don't readily crystallise. The target audience is the pharmaceutical industry but, as it becomes a new component of the NCS and with strategic partnerships already in place, the aim is to develop and deliver it to academia and grow new crystallography user communities. High Performance Liquid Chromatography will provide the basis for the NCS to deliver this technique to the academic community by enabling the handling of a much wider range of compounds and mixtures with a wide variety of levels of purity. The final item requested is a replacement for a 20-year-old Hot Stage Microscope which aligns to the 'invest to save' theme and supports a range of advanced techniques and teaching activities. The desire for these capabilities has been assessed via recent community consultation exercises, most notably an NCS Community Statement of Need and gathering support for a national electron diffraction facility. They have also been considered as part of the formal governance and review procedures of the NCS. The unique position and reach of the NCS in the community will enable maximisation of the number of beneficiaries of this equipment through its core business, advanced methods and technique development work. The large established user base reaches through to PhD students and ECRs, all of whom have opportunity for skills training provided with this equipment. In conclusion, with the ability to continue to sustain the high level of service provision, the NCS can also add significant value to this investment through well-established routes and clearly identified pathways to impact. These are not only through its established user community, but also by reaching out to many new users and to the global community, particularly via partnerships with key industry and instrument manufacturers.