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Midwest Launch of the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program
June 1, 2015
IARC - Illinois Accelerator Stewardship
Test Facility Pilot Program
On April 28, 2015, Meyer Tool’s Ed Bonnema and Eileen Cunningham attended the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) jointly hosted Midwest launch of the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program. Through this program, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science hopes to encourage lab-university-industry partnerships by opening their laboratory doors to potential partner/users to make use of their available world-class laboratory accelerator facilities and infrastructure to develop new accelerator technology and products in American industry and academia. It is expected that research born via the DOE’s High Energy Physics (HEP) mission will lead to technology applications beyond HEP with transformative impact to manufacturing, energy and the environment.
This one day event based at Fermi was part of a larger effort to encourage National Labs to partner with industry to promote innovation and U.S. industrial competitiveness, enhancing our nation’s ability to launch new industries, ultimately creating American jobs. The morning began with a plenary session highlighting a variety of speakers fluent on the opportunities offered. After a morning break, attendees were offered a tour of either ANL or FNAL facilities. Upon return, lunch was served, followed by a “speed dating” opportunity to meet with potential partners. The day ended back in the original meeting room to discuss Lab-Partnership Mechanisms and to garner immediate feedback on the day.
Leading off the morning plenary session was Fermilab Director, Nigel Lockyer, welcoming attendees with a summary of meeting goals and an overview of the day. He discussed current and future accelerator applications including Fermi’s rich history of discovery and the varied uses of accelerators in industry, national security and medicine already in play. Through continued discovery, many additional accelerator applications are envisioned in the future. The DOE Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program will provide a source of funding and stellar facilities to host partnerships leading to said innovation.
Andria Winters, Assistant Director of Illinois Department of Commerce and Equal Opportunity (DCEO) voiced Illinois support of, and potential gain from, leveraging lab-university-industry partnerships. She also confirmed Illinois’ commitment to promoting a nurturing environment for innovation as exhibited by Illinois’ financial support of the Fermilab IARC facility.
Stewardship Program Director Eric Colby, DOE, spoke next, highlighting the many unique accelerator R&D capabilities that have been developed to support the scientific research of the Office of Science. And while the national lab network views themselves as open and collaborative, industry has, at times, felt barriers to collaboration. This one-year Pilot program seeks to broaden public awareness of accelerator R&D capabilities, survey the potential demand for facility use, seed fund initial collaborations and in the end, evaluate the process and results. This outreach event was designed to broaden awareness of the pilot program and gauge initial interest, in the hopes of developing a list of potential collaborative accelerator opportunities.
IARC Director Robert Kephart, Fermilab, and Stuart Henderson, Director, APS Upgrade Project and Director, Argonne Accelerator Institute, each spoke to their lab’s extensive accelerator capabilities and infrastructure. Both ANL and Fermilab, already regularly involved with university-lab-industry successful partnerships, are excited by the potential to grow these partnerships through this Pilot Program. The goal is to develop new and innovative accelerator capabilities and applications for the ultimate creation of entire new industries and high tech jobs. While this pilot program involves many national labs, through the groundbreaking DOE/State of Illinois partnership to develop the IARC facility, Illinois is poised to become the preeminent national enabler of accelerator based products and services serving as the seed for industry growth. Following Bob and Stuart’s talks, attendees were able to view firsthand either Fermi’s or ANL’s accelerator facilities and infrastructure by choosing one of the available tours before breaking for lunch.
After lunch, a “speed date” session in Wilson Hall allowed attendees to meet with experts from Argonne and Fermilab as well as fellow industry and academia based peers. The events of the day certainly spawned conversation about available infrastructure and potential partnerships that could be funded by the DOE Accelerator Stewardship Pilot Program. Expression of Interest Forms were available through which the DOE hoped to gauge interest for the program.
After “speed dating”, attendees converged in the meeting room to gain a better understanding of Lab Partnership Mechanisms via a talk led by Cherri Schmidt, Fermilab Office of Partnerships and Technology Transfer.
Finally, wrapping up for the day were Robert Kephart and Stuart Henderson who led an industry feedback discussion, highlighting possible next steps. Meyer Tool would like to offer congratulations to both men for planning and leading such a well-designed, thorough and informative session.
The Midwest launch of the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program was enlightening. DOE’s plan to foster lab-university-industry partnerships by opening their laboratory doors and providing seed funding to potential partner/users to share the use of America’s world class laboratory accelerator facilities and infrastructure is exciting to ponder. The availability of the IARC facility should enhance opportunities in the state of Illinois. Encouraging the advancement of new accelerator technology and products via these partnerships is sure to result in the development of innovative, transformative technologies and products while creating American jobs! We at Meyer Tool applaud the intent of the Pilot Program and wish the initiative great success.
This one day event based at Fermi was part of a larger effort to encourage National Labs to partner with industry to promote innovation and U.S. industrial competitiveness, enhancing our nation’s ability to launch new industries, ultimately creating American jobs. The morning began with a plenary session highlighting a variety of speakers fluent on the opportunities offered. After a morning break, attendees were offered a tour of either ANL or FNAL facilities. Upon return, lunch was served, followed by a “speed dating” opportunity to meet with potential partners. The day ended back in the original meeting room to discuss Lab-Partnership Mechanisms and to garner immediate feedback on the day.
Leading off the morning plenary session was Fermilab Director, Nigel Lockyer, welcoming attendees with a summary of meeting goals and an overview of the day. He discussed current and future accelerator applications including Fermi’s rich history of discovery and the varied uses of accelerators in industry, national security and medicine already in play. Through continued discovery, many additional accelerator applications are envisioned in the future. The DOE Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program will provide a source of funding and stellar facilities to host partnerships leading to said innovation.
Andria Winters, Assistant Director of Illinois Department of Commerce and Equal Opportunity (DCEO) voiced Illinois support of, and potential gain from, leveraging lab-university-industry partnerships. She also confirmed Illinois’ commitment to promoting a nurturing environment for innovation as exhibited by Illinois’ financial support of the Fermilab IARC facility.
Stewardship Program Director Eric Colby, DOE, spoke next, highlighting the many unique accelerator R&D capabilities that have been developed to support the scientific research of the Office of Science. And while the national lab network views themselves as open and collaborative, industry has, at times, felt barriers to collaboration. This one-year Pilot program seeks to broaden public awareness of accelerator R&D capabilities, survey the potential demand for facility use, seed fund initial collaborations and in the end, evaluate the process and results. This outreach event was designed to broaden awareness of the pilot program and gauge initial interest, in the hopes of developing a list of potential collaborative accelerator opportunities.
IARC Director Robert Kephart, Fermilab, and Stuart Henderson, Director, APS Upgrade Project and Director, Argonne Accelerator Institute, each spoke to their lab’s extensive accelerator capabilities and infrastructure. Both ANL and Fermilab, already regularly involved with university-lab-industry successful partnerships, are excited by the potential to grow these partnerships through this Pilot Program. The goal is to develop new and innovative accelerator capabilities and applications for the ultimate creation of entire new industries and high tech jobs. While this pilot program involves many national labs, through the groundbreaking DOE/State of Illinois partnership to develop the IARC facility, Illinois is poised to become the preeminent national enabler of accelerator based products and services serving as the seed for industry growth. Following Bob and Stuart’s talks, attendees were able to view firsthand either Fermi’s or ANL’s accelerator facilities and infrastructure by choosing one of the available tours before breaking for lunch.
After lunch, a “speed date” session in Wilson Hall allowed attendees to meet with experts from Argonne and Fermilab as well as fellow industry and academia based peers. The events of the day certainly spawned conversation about available infrastructure and potential partnerships that could be funded by the DOE Accelerator Stewardship Pilot Program. Expression of Interest Forms were available through which the DOE hoped to gauge interest for the program.
After “speed dating”, attendees converged in the meeting room to gain a better understanding of Lab Partnership Mechanisms via a talk led by Cherri Schmidt, Fermilab Office of Partnerships and Technology Transfer.
Finally, wrapping up for the day were Robert Kephart and Stuart Henderson who led an industry feedback discussion, highlighting possible next steps. Meyer Tool would like to offer congratulations to both men for planning and leading such a well-designed, thorough and informative session.
The Midwest launch of the Accelerator Stewardship Test Facility Pilot Program was enlightening. DOE’s plan to foster lab-university-industry partnerships by opening their laboratory doors and providing seed funding to potential partner/users to share the use of America’s world class laboratory accelerator facilities and infrastructure is exciting to ponder. The availability of the IARC facility should enhance opportunities in the state of Illinois. Encouraging the advancement of new accelerator technology and products via these partnerships is sure to result in the development of innovative, transformative technologies and products while creating American jobs! We at Meyer Tool applaud the intent of the Pilot Program and wish the initiative great success.
