The Cockcroft Institute

The Cockcroft Institute A collaboration between academia, national laboratories, industry and local economy.

The Cockcroft Institute – a collaboration between academia, national laboratories, industry and local economy – brings together the best accelerator scientists, engineers, educators and industrialists to conceive, design, construct and use innovative instruments of discovery at all scales and lead the UK’s participation in flagship international experiments. It cultures the curiosity of emerging m

inds via education of the future generation and engages with industrial partners to generate wealth for the community that sustains us.

We’re excited to welcome seven students from across the UK to the Cockcroft Institute at Daresbury Laboratory for a seve...
27/07/2026

We’re excited to welcome seven students from across the UK to the Cockcroft Institute at Daresbury Laboratory for a seven-week summer placement.

After an induction featuring talks from academia and industry, plus a tour of the lab’s facilities, they’re now starting projects spanning topics from quantum free-electron lasers to cargo scanning X-ray technology. Two projects are supported by our industry partners, Microwave Amps and Rapiscan Systems.

Find out more : https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/07/27/summer-students-at-the-cockcroft-institute/

A-Level students got a behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge particle accelerator science during a tour of the Daresbur...
22/07/2026

A-Level students got a behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge particle accelerator science during a tour of the Daresbury Laboratory, organised by Narender Kumar.

As part of the University of Liverpool’s Annual Physics Work Experience Week, 36 students explored facilities including the Diagnostics Labs, SuRFLab, VISTA and DUNE, met researchers, and attended talks on the history and future of particle accelerators.

Read more:
https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/07/22/exploring-cutting-edge-science/

Our particle accelerator escape room “Acceler8Escape” was one of the exciting workshops delivered at the Passion4Learnin...
17/07/2026

Our particle accelerator escape room “Acceler8Escape” was one of the exciting workshops delivered at the Passion4Learning Science Extravaganza hosted at Daresbury National Laboratory on 9th July 2026.

A total of 136 pupils aged 8-11 from 5 local primary schools took part throughout the day, working in teams to solve puzzles and learn all about the lasers, magnets, cavities and radiation used in particle accelerators.

Read more:
https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/07/17/science-extravaganza-hosted-at-daresbury-laboratory/

An annual training programme organised by the Central Laser Facility (CLF) provides new PhD students with hands-on exper...
13/07/2026

An annual training programme organised by the Central Laser Facility (CLF) provides new PhD students with hands-on experience in laser-plasma experimental techniques. This year the programme took place in March 2026, hosted by Queen’s University Belfast at the TARANIS laser facility.

Participants included students from the Cockcroft Institute, with representation from the University of Strathclyde and Lancaster University, alongside students from several other institutions. The training also provided a valuable opportunity for networking and collaboration between students working in related areas of laser–plasma physics.

Read more:
https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/07/13/2026-central-laser-facility-training-programme-hosted-at-queens-university-belfast/

Congratulations 👏 to CI PhD students Patrick Dalton and Aras Amini from The University of Manchester for winning Best Po...
06/07/2026

Congratulations 👏 to CI PhD students Patrick Dalton and Aras Amini from The University of Manchester for winning Best Poster Presentation at the Particle Accelerators and Beams Conference 2026 IOP PABG!

Patrick Dalton presented work on a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) wafer stack source driven by a high average power laser system to generate high average power narrowband terahertz (THz) radiation.

Aras Amini presented an interactive poster on temporal locking using THz-driven waveguides for the external injection of electron bunches into laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA).

Tuesday 9 June featured the pre-kick-off meeting of iRIS, a new Horizon Europe project that will develop and demonstrate...
03/07/2026

Tuesday 9 June featured the pre-kick-off meeting of iRIS, a new Horizon Europe project that will develop and demonstrate AI-powered sustainability solutions for large-scale research infrastructures. With a Horizon Europe grant of 5 M€ and a total project cost of 7.7 M€, iRIS will run for 50 months and brings together 12 beneficiaries and 12 associated partners, including major European research infrastructures, universities, research organizations and companies.

The project aims to turn research infrastructures into open innovation testbeds for technologies that reduce energy and resource use while accelerating the transfer of solutions from science to society. Its work is closely connected to future large-scale facilities, including the Future Circular Collider and the Einstein Telescope, and will support sustainability across the full lifecycle of research infrastructures: from design and construction to operation, reuse and long-term legacy.

Find out more:
https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/07/01/5-me-iris-project-launched-at-fcc-week-2026/

Several members of the Cockcroft Institute (CI) have recently attended the International Particle Accelerator Conference...
02/07/2026

Several members of the Cockcroft Institute (CI) have recently attended the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’26) in Deauville, France.

The Cockcroft Institute was once again well represented, with more than 40 members attending the conference and contributing to the scientific programme with talks, as session chairs and over 40 poster contributions across novel acceleration schemes, plasma acceleration, data science, medical applications and beam dynamics studies.

Read more on www.cockcroft.ac.uk

CI member Alessandro Frasca’s (University of Liverpool) latest work has been selected as Editor’s Choice in Physical Rev...
01/07/2026

CI member Alessandro Frasca’s (University of Liverpool) latest work has been selected as Editor’s Choice in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams – a recognition that highlights the significance of this contribution to the design of the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee).

His study characterises the radiation environment across multiple operational modes, each featuring different beam energies and intensities, identifying the dominant sources in each region. Two extreme configurations are considered: collisions at the Z pole and at the top quark–antiquark (tt̄) threshold. The resulting model is a key tool for the next stages of FCC-ee development, supporting shielding design, technology choices, radiation protection, and detector studies.

Find out more:

https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/06/26/radiation-environment-at-fcc-ee-experimental-insertion-regions/

A particle accelerator-themed escape room (Acceler8Escape) has been developed at the Cockcroft Institute, providing a un...
29/06/2026

A particle accelerator-themed escape room (Acceler8Escape) has been developed at the Cockcroft Institute, providing a unique way to engage participants of all ages with accelerator science. Created by Dr Morgan Hibberd (University of Manchester) in partnership with the STFC Public Engagement team at Daresbury Laboratory, players work against the clock to solve 8 interactive, hands-on puzzles that mimic real-life research skills, learning all about the key components of a particle accelerator from lasers and magnets to cavities and radiation.

The project was launched in October 2025 at the Daresbury Laboratory Family Science Day with over 400 participants and has since been delivered in primary and secondary school events for ages from 8-18, with the puzzles able to be tailored to any ability. Following this success, the project was recently awarded a €350k Horizon-funded Marie-Curie Citizens award as part of a consortium of 12 institutions across Italy, France and the UK to develop a European-wide network of educational science escape rooms.

Read more:
https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2026/06/24/accelerator-escape-room-part-of-new-european-outreach-network/

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