Flagship Project for Daresbury 

Minutes from a meeting held on the 23rd June 2000 at the DaresburyLaboratory

Present: P.Weightman (Chairman), N. Allinson, R.Carter, R.Cernick, D. Chadwick, J. Dainton, T. Greenshaw, P.Hart, D. Hastings,R. Lewis, D Norman, R .Page, J. Shaw,  F.G.Smith, S. Smith, E.Towns-Andrews, N. Thatcher, M. Pearson, N. Roberts. 
D. Warner,  P. Williams,  and S. Williams,

The meeting was called to discuss an outline proposal for a flagshipproject with a probable overall cost of between £ 100 millionand £ 200 million. It was envisaged that the proposal wouldhave three main headings. 

1.	World Class fourth generation light source facilities
2.	An Accelerator Centre
3.	The development of a medical imaging capability

Professor Weightman informed the meeting that the primary purposeof this meeting was to agree the overall strategy with those presentwho were also acting as representatives of wider communities.

It had been agreed from the meeting held on the 19th Junethat a single 10 page case proposal would be submitted to theSmith Committee by the 28th July It would include the following:

a) 	A first page summarising the coherence of the case 
b) 	2 - 3 pages on each of the above major aspects of thecase
c) 	A page summarising the overall cost of the project.
d) 	A final page summarising the detailed costingsof major investments of £ 5 millon in the fourth generationlight source, £ 5 millon in the accelerator centre and radioactivebeam facility and £ 2 million in the imaging centre.(NB.thismeeting upgraded this latter estimate to £ 5 million) 

Clatterbridge cyclotron
The Chairman asked J. Shaw from the Clatterbridge Hospital tocomment on the possibility that the Clatterbridge cyclotron  couldbe moved to Daresbury. J. Shaw informed the committee that therewas to be board meeting next week and that he would bring thisquestion to the meeting  - The machine currently operated at 65MeV,but with accelerator development of an ‘after burner’ (the TERA project), the facility could be upgraded to 200MeV,which would open up new avenues for cancer treatment and providea proton acceleration for the nuclear structure scientists 
Those present could see no reason why the upgraded facility, locatedat the Daresbury Laboratory, could not be used for cancer treatmentas well as research.

It was agreed that David Warner would keep a watching brief onthis subject and liaise with those concerned. 

MANPET 
A presentation on MANPET was given by Peter Williams

The proposal is to establish a multi-disciplinary networkfor medical imaging research , building on existing links andexpertise at academic institutions, NHS Trusts and industry acrossthe North West. The North West Universities and their associatedhospital Trusts already have considerable expertise in medialimaging from both a basic science and clinical research perspective.

It is proposed to develop a more widely distributed multi-disciplinarynetwork for medical imaging research. 

Key areas of development for the Daresbury facility are: 
1. Radioisotope production for imaging and therapy
2. Accelerator research facility, to involve University of Manchesterand Liverpool Universities.
3. Novel imaging methods and instrumentation
4. Image analysis and data processing. 

A Draft Outline Proposal  can be obtained from Peter Williams.

Francis Smith expected that the Vice Chancellors would supportthis proposal.

General Discussion
It was agreed that although space was limited collaborators wouldattempt to include in the case comments on how proposals wouldenhance wealth creation in the North West. 

It was agreed that the proposal would concentration on capitalcosts and leave the implied re-current costs to the long termconsiderations of the Byers Committee

John Dainton explained the importance of maintaining a World Classcapability in accelerator design. 

Actions
The following actions were agreed:

1.	S. Williams would be responsible for producingthe 2 - 3 pages required for the medical imaging case. He wouldget together a small working group that would be representativeof all the institutions involved. The case would be brought tothe meeting on the 5th July.

2.	 R. Carter would act as the representativeof Lancaster university and would liaise with other scientistsand collect letters of support particularly from industry.

3. 	Tim Greenshaw would write a paragraph summarising theimportance of maintaining trained manpower in the acceleratorcentre.  He would attend the meeting on the 5th July as a representativeof the high energy physics community. Tim has also set up a webpage and Peter Weightman would send the minutes of this and previousmeetings to Tim for inclusion on the web page. 

4. 	David Warner would liaise with the proponents of the acceleratorcentre and the nuclear physics community and prepare the casefor £ 5M in support of the proposals for radioactive beamsfacility. If possible David Warner would join  John Durral andanother member of the nuclear physics community at the meetingon the 5th July.  

5. 	It was agreed that a meeting would be held at the DaresburyLaboratory on the 5th July at 4.00 p.m. David Norman would arrangethe venue.