European Spallation Source ERIC

Time captured in steel and shadow ⏳

The winning photo in the ESS Staff Photo Competition “Time & Change” category captures a moment in the transformation of the ESS site.

Swipe to see honourable mentions 📸

Big science, tiny homes 🌿

“Neutron House,” the winning image in the ESS Staff Photo Competition’s “Nature & Surroundings” category, captures a quiet moment where architecture, nature and the evolving ESS landscape meet.

Swipe to see honourable mentions 📸

🚀 Big progress for FREIA at ESS!

Key components are now in place inside the instrument cave, bringing FREIA one step closer to full integration 🔧

✅ Detector bench and guard assembly installed
✅ Collimation vessel in place
✅ Base for the hexapod system installed

🤝 Great teamwork on site with visiting colleagues from Neutron and Muon Source STFC working alongside ESS teams.

🥽 The visitors also tested the VR environment developed by the ESS Spatial Integration team, showcasing how virtual tools can support training and future installation planning.

👏 Huge thanks to everyone at ESS and STFC involved in the installation work. Collaboration and shared expertise are helping turn FREIA into reality.

A summer at ESS ☀️

Over the next few months, our 2026 Summer Workers will join teams across science, engineering, IT, administration, and technical services, contributing to projects that help keep ESS moving forward.

💡 For many, it’s a first experience inside a large international research facility. A summer of learning, collaboration and getting hands-on with real-world challenges alongside colleagues from across Europe and beyond.

We’re excited to welcome this year’s group and can’t wait to see what the summer brings.

✨ This is the moment ESS reached another major milestone on the road to first neutrons.

Beam on Dump 2 is complete.

After four months of accelerator commissioning, ESS teams successfully achieved stable beam delivery to the tuning beam dump at an energy of 800–860 MeV, while seperately increasing pulse length, repetition rate, and beam current.

Behind this achievement are countless hours of collaboration, precision, problem-solving, and persistence from teams across ESS. Every increase in beam power requires magnets, RF cavities, diagnostics, controls, and many other systems to work together in perfect coordination.

📸 In the first photo, ESS Director General Helmut Schober shuts down the beam, marking the successful completion of the Beam on Dump 2 commissioning phase, and another significant step towards first neutrons.

Read more about the milestone: https://ess.eu/article/2026/07/07/ess-completes-beam-dump-2-advancing-toward-first-neutrons

"Pillars of Helium Power" ⚪

The winning image in the ESS Staff Photo Competition’s “Architecture & Spaces” category turns an industrial passage into something almost abstract.

Swipe to see honourable mentions 📸

"

✨ What does a neutron source look like from the inside?

The Source is a collaboration between artist and ESS scientists, exploring how neutron activation and imaging could create a portrait of the ESS moderator.

As ESS moves closer to Beam on Target, the research continues...

🙌The project began through the Nanocosmic Investigations art residency has continues with funding from

📷 First image: initial sketch, photo by Matso Pamuchina, Malmö Museer

🌱 We were delighted to collaborate with students from on the development of ESS’s first operational Double Materiality Assessment (DMA).

Laura Berger, Jose Villanueva, Hendrik Reeps, and Lucas Starkloff from the Master’s programme in International Strategic Management worked with ESS to explore key Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics relevant to an international research infrastructure.

Their work covered:
🌍 Impact materiality: how ESS activities affect stakeholders, society, and the environment
📈 Financial materiality: how sustainability-related risks and opportunities may influence ESS’s long-term resilience and strategy

🎉Congratulations to Laura, Jose, Hendrik, and Lucas on an impressive achievement, and thank you to the LUSEM staff and everyone at ESS who supported the projects throughout the semester!

📸 In the photos: the students together with ESS staff Raquel Costa, Ola Dahlborg, and Wolfgang Hees. Credit: Laura Berger