Sweden makes the most of PETRA III despite the pandemic

One of CeXS duties is to monitor Sweden's use of the PETRA III synchrotron and its Swedish Material Science beamline - and report this to the Swedish Research Council (VR).

Despite Covid-19 disruptions, there are many highlights from our 2020 report, including:

1. PETRA III is very much in demand by Swedish researchers:
   • Sustained proposal rates
   • The Swedish (P21), P03 and P22 beam lines are most popular - each being requested in approx. 20% of proposals
   • Some other beamlines are requested by 10% of proposals, with most receiving at least one request
2. International researchers also saw the value of the Swedish beamline and conducted measurements there
3. Many Swedish users actually had the chance to make research measurements
   • 102 users visited PETRA III to undertake measurements, working with social distancing precautions
   • Additional virtual users gained access via 1 remote access project and 9 mail in projects
   • 42 projects had beam time, 37 via privileged access with 5 industry projects paying for access
   • 7 of those privileged access projects and 1 industry project used the Swedish beamline
4. Publications were up
   • 88 papers in 2020 - compared to 66 in 2019 and 53 in 2018
5. PETRA IV and scientific research
   • CeXS orchestrated 3 Scientific Instrument Proposals (SiPs), and supported a 4th, setting the scene for leading research at the future PETRA IV