Core Equipment to leverage world class National Crystallography Service facilities

该提案确定了将添加到NCS最先进设备基础的附件，以提供全新的能力，然后作为一项服务广泛交付。这项技术的开发和交付符合核心设备“支撑多用户设备”的主题。再加上支持和启用ecr和博士生的既定路线，NCS直接解决了这一呼吁的目标。NCS是一个世界知名的机构，拥有庞大的用户群，也是第一个成立的国家研究机构（1981年）。它非常适合最大限度地提高核心设备投资的效益和受益者，是一个先进的设施，具有全国范围和建立，协调的方法来维护和扩大其用户群。它是一个具有开创性发展记录的世界领导者，这些发展已被广泛采用或纳入仪器，以造福整个社区。NRF模式提供了准入机制、专家支持、监测、治理和可持续运营模式，以确保这项投资将充分发挥其最大潜力。主要项目是一个用于电子衍射的温度控制样品架和一个能量色散光谱仪，它们被确定为最近由EPSRC战略设备计划资助的电子衍射仪的附件。这将是世界上第一台可供学术界使用的专用仪器，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功能：能够进行原位元素分析，访问高温和控制气体环境，同时收集纳米晶体的原子分辨率结构信息。最近，NCS已经开发了技术和设施来提供新的“水晶海绵”技术。这是一个与默克和理学合作的联合开发/影响项目，可以获取纳米级材料或不易结晶物质的结构数据。目标受众是制药行业，但随着它成为NCS的新组成部分，并且已经建立了战略合作伙伴关系，其目标是开发并将其提供给学术界，并培养新的晶体学用户群体。高效液相色谱法将为NCS提供基础，使其能够处理范围更广、纯度水平不同的化合物和混合物，从而将该技术推广到学术界。最后一项要求是更换一台20年历史的热台显微镜，该显微镜符合“投资以节省”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渴望，最引人注目的是NCS社区需求声明和对国家电子衍射设施的支持。它们也被视为国家信息系统正式治理和审查程序的一部分。NCS在社会上的独特地位和影响力将通过其核心业务，先进的方法和技术开发工作，使该设备的受益者人数最大化。已建立的庞大用户群一直延伸到博士生和ecr，他们都有机会接受该设备提供的技能培训。总之，由于有能力继续维持高水平的服务提供，NCS还可以通过完善的路线和明确确定的影响途径为这项投资增加重大价值。这不仅是通过其已建立的用户社区，而且还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合作伙伴关系。

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.