Cerdanyola del Vallès, 21st April 2020 Given the currently pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, knowledge about the virus characteristics and the development of its possible vaccine and treatment are high priority in all research institutions worldwide.
ALBA has started up again its accelerators to produce synchrotron light under the COVID-19 operation mode, a reduced special operation mode accepting experiments, both public and proprietary ones, correlated with research dedicated to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
A dedicated quick access call is continuously open for public access; please use this link for further information. Private companies needing beamtime can contact the Industrial Liason Office.
While the majority of the staff is tele-working, ALBA is proceeding to a controlled and careful restart of the activities which must be realized on site. Strong attention is given to safety guidelines, based on the official ones from the government and adapted to ALBA’s reality, always going in the direction of strengthening the risk mitigation. Only activities which can be carried out by reduced teams under safe conditions are being allowed.
The obligation of cancelling the scheduled beamtimes for external users up to July is expected to be somehow mitigated by the sample mail-in service, with which some of the experiments can be retrieved, once the operation will be opened also to research beyond the COVID-19 one.
