president  Mr Didier Houssin

Pierre

 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The research team DYNAMYC was formed from the previously existing group Ecopham, part of the Joint Research Unit BIPAR (Molecular BIology and Immunology of PARasitic and fungal diseases) created in 1999 and located at ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety). However, some structural and human resources modifications during the last years have led to the individualization of an independent group dedicated to the study of mycology in human and animal health. In order to reinforce the scientific and educational collaboration between veterinarians and physicians, DYNAMYC is now located at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université Paris Est Créteil and aims at integrating in the future the IMRB (Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale) at the Henri Mondor Hospital in Créteil.

Management team

Head: Mr Jacques GUILLOT -Deputy head: Ms Françoise BOTTEREL AERES nomenclature SVE1_LS4; SVE1_LS6; SVE1_LS7 2  Overall assessment of the interdisciplinary unit

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

Global assessment of the unit

The research team DYNAMYC is currently composed of 14 members that are well established scientists and renowned in the field. The research topics addressed by DYNAMYC are very original. Focusing on the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, epidemiological issues will be addressed, backed up with in vitro/in vivo models, aiming at clarifying the cellular consequences of these epidemiological observations. In addition, this team which involves experts in the veterinary and medical fields is unique in France, enabling projects and trans-disciplinary research with strong national and international impact to be achieved. In particular, the team leader has developed competitive networks in the field of research and teaching on veterinary mycology. The team is well organized, with easy access to pooled resources. Members share lab space and have a joined office area at the Créteil Faculty of Medicine. The head of the parasitology-mycology lab at Henri Mondor University Hospital is the deputy head of the DYNAMYC research entity. The atmosphere amongst the researchers is very good. Overall, the high scientific potential of the group and the unique combination of veterinarians and physicians is quite innovative and original in the field. The structure and logistics support strongly the team members as well as the research program.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The research developed by the research team DYNAMYC is original and the approach innovative and unique. There are opportunities for partnering in networks, platforms, associations, as well as for joint productions with nonacademic partners. The expected impact of the research program is high at an international level. In the context of veterinary mycology, the academic reputation and appeal of the head of the unit has to be considered as outstanding. He is internationally known and very active in the veterinary mycology community, e.g. he founded the ISHAM (International Society for Human and animal mycology) working group on veterinary mycology and he is one of the organizers of the first workshop on veterinary mycology. In the context of interdisciplinarity, the organization of the unit is outstanding, in that it combines researchers from both veterinary and medical background sharing lab and resources. The group is actively involved in teaching at the master level, at the National Veterinary School d'Alfort, at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université Paris Est Créteil (UPEC) and at the Paris Descartes University, as well as in human and veterinary clinics. The atmosphere is very good and positive, they appear to see themselves really as one team with a common goal and a well-developed "team spirit". Innovative tools such as new generation sequencing and a unique mix of animal and human in vitro/in vivo models will warrant interesting and original manuscripts in high impact factor journals.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

The DYNAMYC team is a newly created team with the technical and scientific prerequisites required for obtaining national and international grants. In general, the project is highly original and could lead to outstanding results, but the planned work exposed during the visit appears too descriptive. The experts committee suggests to develop hypotheses (based on previous work or data collected during the initial phases of the projects) to address mechanisms of pathogenesis/infection. This would also help to potentially increase the number of high impact publications of the group.

The experts committee felt that the reinforcement of the unit with a full time researcher and a full time technician (only 2.2 EFT technician in the team, one will retire soon) would improve the research capacity of the team.

Recommendations

DYNAMYC is a young team with a strong potential and a unique interdisciplinarity combination of veterinarians and physicians working on mycology. The structure and local logistics support provided by the institutions warrant the feasibility of the research program, and the team might rapidly integrate the INSERM Institute IMRB (Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale, Créteil). A good level of scientific involvement in international and national projects and an outstanding contribution of well known experts incite the experts committee to express a highly positive assessment for this unit. The group should however refine its research strategy and aims going beyond descriptive studies to address mechanistical questions. The group will also have to be followed regarding its capacity to attract full-time scientists and post-docs and to apply for national and international research grants.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs DYNAMYC involves experts in the veterinary and medical fields in a unique combination in France, enabling trans-disciplinary research to be promoted and developed. The research is original, focusing on Aspergillus fumigatus, either as an environmental microorganism that may colonize the respiratory tract in humans and animals, or as a pathogenic organism for respiratory epithelial cells. These scientific questions are high spots of research in the mycology field. Furthermore, Aspergillus fumigatus is a potential azole-resistant organism as shown in Northern Europe, but only limited data are available from France. Innovative tools, such as new generation sequencing, and a unique mix of animal and human in vitro/in vivo models will warrant important manuscripts in high impact factor journals. The track record (publications, talks) in the field is considered as excellent, taking into account that veterinary research topics generally do not reach the level of impact factors expected for human microbiology. In its previous configuration with 2 more scientists that are no more included in the DYNAMYC team, the group published 72 scientific publications, among them 41 original research articles (mean IF 3.57), 19 papers about clinical cases (mean IF 2.89) and 12 reviews (mean IF 5.29) over the period 2008 to june 2013. Papers were published in generalist and specialty journals considered as exceptional to excellent (based on Thomson Reuters IF): 1 Am J Transpl (IF 6.4), 3 Clin Infect Dis (IF 9.1), 2 Clin Microbiol Rev (IF 16.1), 1 AIDS (IF 6.2), 1 Emerg Inf Dis (IF 6.2), 1 in Haematol (IF 6.4) and 29 articles with IF between 2.5 and 6. Furthermore, the scientist who joined the group in September 2012 published 16 research articles and 8 clinical cases. Among them 8 as major contributor (1 Emerg Infect Dis. (IF 6.2), 4 Antimicrob Agents Chem. (IF 5.1), 3 J Clin Microbiol (IF 4.1) from January 2008 to June 2013. Members of the group gave 42 lecturers as invited speakers, and a total number of 40 oral communications were presented during international (n=19) or national (n=24) conferences.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The head of the research team as well as the leaders of work packages are used to contribute to projects with strong national and international impact. Particularly in the context of veterinary mycology, the academic reputation and appeal of the head of the unit has to be considered as outstanding. He is internationally known and very active in the veterinary mycology community, e.g. he founded, in 2012, the ISHAM (International society for human and animal mycology) working group on veterinary mycology and is one of the organizers of the first workshop on veterinary mycology. Furthermore, the DYNAMYC team, mainly composed by members from the Université Paris Est Créteil (UPEC) and the National Alfort Veterinarinary School (ENVA), has attracted a well established scientist from university Paris V with national and international expertise in the field of antimicrobial resistance. Some team members are already engaged in national and international funding programs and are regularly invited to oral lectures at national and international conferences. Team members are included in Editorial Boards (e.g., ISRN Veterinary Science, Cellular and Molecular Probe, Journal of Medical Mycology) and are regularly referee in journals in the field of medical or environmental Microbiology, Mycology and Veterinary Sciences.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

Members of the DYNAMYC team have developed collaborations with pharmaceutical and veterinary industries that reflect the innovative nature of their research and potential for technology transfer. In particular, PhD funding from private companies (CIFRE convention) has been obtained recently. The work carried out has already contributed to the establishment of recommendations for the survey and control of fungal infections in humans and animals. The experts committee feels that new applications with pre-normative or prescriptive purpose could be obtained in a midterm. A large number of articles in journals targeted to practitioners (veterinary and medical) as well as book chapters demonstrate an excellent to outstanding level of communication of the team members with non-researchers.

Assessment of the unit's organization and life

The DYNAMYC team is well organized. Team members share lab space and have a joined office area in the Créteil Faculty of Medicine. A weekly meeting is scheduled including scientific presentations by external members, reports of new data and logistics problems. An easy access to different platforms and pooled resources necessary for carrying out their research activities is supported by UPEC and ENVA. The DYNAMYC team may join the IMRB to ease the access to technical platforms but also to participate in research meetings.

The atmosphere amongst the researchers is very good and positive, they appear to see themselves really as one team with a common goal and a well-developed "team spirit". This is quite remarkable and can be considered as an attractive feature. A website is available and regularly updated. The research team is well-balanced, including PhD students, post-docs and clinicians and tenured position research staff. However the unit should be strengthened by the addition of a full-time researcher and a full-time technician, since all the researchers have quite significant duties in patient and animal care as well as teaching. Reinforcement of scientific and technical staff would also increase the scientific output through full commitment to sustainability of technical knowledge.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

From 2008 to 2013, the research team was part of the ABIES (Agriculture, Biologie, Environnement, Santé, ED 435) doctoral school. The head of the research team has been a member of the executive committee of the doctoral school ABIES from 2003 to 2010. In 2014, the group will be part of the doctoral school SVS (Sciences de la Vie et de la Santé) from UPEC (Université Paris Est Créteil, ED n°402) and will probably be involved more and more in this structure. From 2008 to 2013, 5 students defended their PhD thesis. Within the DYNAMYC team, 2 students are preparing their thesis, a grant was obtained from a private company (bourse CIFRE) and an other from the China Scholarship Council. Besides, the team DYNAMYC hosts 1 post-doc and 2 Master students. Supervision of research activities is very well appreciated by students. Members of the DYNAMYC team are involved in teaching programs for bachelor and master students from Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) and Université Versailles Saint-Quentin (UVSQ). The head of the unit created a specific master (M2) course "Circulation des agents pathogènes dans les populations animales" (Master A2I, UVSQ). The deputy head recently created a specific M1 course "Interactions entre agents infectieux" with the Département Hospitalo-Universitaire (DHU) "Virus Immunité et Cancers at UPEC.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The project aiming at the analysis of the role of Aspergillus fumigatus as an environmental microorganism that may colonise or be a pathogenic organism for the human and animal respiratory tract, and of growing importance as a resistant micro-organism, is very interesting and ambitious, but competitive with other international research groups. In this context, some comments are provided below in order to help improve the project, because the present proposal does not include a detailed description of that issue:

-specific objectives of working packages should be included; -chronogram and division of tasks for team members should be described;

-the five-year plan should include a strategy for cooption of future partners, a broadening of the subject, and a strategic plan for funding;

-limitations and weaknesses are not well-described; -a more detailed description of procedures used should be provided and a strategy of bioinformatics analysis could help to evaluate the feasibility of the plan.

In general, the planned work appears too descriptive and the experts committee suggests to develop hypotheses (based on former data collected initially in previous work in connection with the project) to address mechanisms of pathogenesis/infection. This would also help to potentially increase the number of high impact publications from the group.

In the first working package, it seems legitimate, after the discussion with the team, to include the study on bamboo rats (as a continuation of an existing collaboration that brings external funding in the form of PhD stipends to the group), but the rest of the package does not seem to be planned in detail and could be discarded in favor of more promising studies using specific skills of the group. For example, the group could focus and develop previous work that has been already published on the human respiratory microbiome and develop a strategy on how their work could add clinical significance. One of the strengths in this work package is the idea to investigate the microbiome in animals. This field is clearly understudied and because there will likely be little competition, the group is set up very well to address this topic. If done in farm animals, the results could be of economic interest as they may lead to hypotheses on how to improve performance and/or management, e.g. in poultry. However, the strategy for such a study needs to be clearly defined in order to be more than just descriptive and lead to pathophysiological hypotheses. For example, the group could build upon their previous observation that different chicken lines have different susceptibility to aspergillosis. This could be extended by comparing the microbiome in both lineages to test the hypothesis that the specific difference in susceptibility to Aspergillus is inferred by the microbiome.

Similarly, the idea for the second work package is very good: interaction of Aspergillus with epithelial cells is understudied and the technical basis for sound experiments is given. However, a clear definition of concise projects is missing. There are many options on how to design scientifically sound and innovative projects: for example, based on the hypothesis that differences in the epithelial response between mammals and birds contribute to the higher susceptibility of birds to aspergillosis, a comprehensive comparison of porcine and avian primary epithelial cell cultures challenged with Aspergillus could be performed.

Overall, the project is highly original. The main positive point of this team is the original and cross-cutting nature of this project, which brings together researchers from veterinary and medical fields with specific skills, with the support of pooled technical resources and of their institution. This is a young team with scientific prerequisites that are required to obtain national and international grants. The investment in the various work packages should be cautiously adapted to the availability of funding, technical resources and scientists, after having clearly defined some priorities within this ambitious program.

  Since 2002, the head of the unit is an invited speaker for the Medical Mycology course from Pasteur Institute and for a course about Epidemiology and Public Health ("Circulation des agents infectieux") from Pasteur Institute, UPMC and UVSQ. Other Members of DYNAMYC give presentations during the M2 courses "Lutte contre les pathogènes; aspects fondamentaux et économiques" (Paris 7) (since 2007) and "Réponses Immunitaires anti-fongiques et antiparasitaires" (UPMC) (since 2009).

Unit workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	Doctoral students	3
	Theses defended	5
	Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit*	1
	Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken	1
	Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	3	4
		Number as at	Number as at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	N1: Permanent professors and similar positions	5 (4 EFT)	5 (4 EFT)
	N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions
	N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties)	6 (5.2 EFT)	6 (5.2 EFT)
	N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.)	2	2
	N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.)	1	1
	N6: Other contractual staff
	(without research duties)
	TOTAL N1 to N6	14 (12.2 EFT)	14 (12.2 EFT)

 Supervising bodies'general comments

1 ,  Mr.


Pierre

 Introduction Execution of the visit

The visit took place from 30 th to 31 st January 2014 in the buildings of the LLB. An extensive visit of the instrumentation around ORPHÉE was part of the programme. During the presentations Mr Klaus HASSELBACH, CoNRS section 05 and Mr Claude ARNOLD representative of CoNRS section 05 IT were present. On Friday, January 31, a phone conference took place with the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Mr Ian ANDERSON, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The well-organized information sessions, intense and lively discussions after each presentation, together with the written reports, and the phone interview with the chairman of the Council for Science and Instrumentation (CSI), allowed the committee to obtain a very clear view of the original research done by the LLB staff and its users, but also of the organisation of the user service and its innovative instrumentation.

History and geographical location of the unit

The Laboratoire Léon Brillouin is located within the "Centre CEA de Saclay" and is part of and profits from the exceptional scientific environment provided by the "Plateau de Saclay", which includes the synchrotron radiation source SOLEIL and renowned universities and engineering schools. LLB constructs and operates instruments for research with neutrons around the national neutron source ORPHÉE, a 14 MW research reactor with a compact core and heavy water moderator in which two cold sources and one hot source are incorporated as so called wavelength shifters. Neutrons are extracted by 9 beam plugs, which again serve up to 27 instrument ports. The reactor provides neutrons since 1980 and is operated by the CEA. According to French nuclear regulation the next safety assessment (group permanent) is foreseen towards beginning 2019.

Management team

The management team consists of the director and deputy director appointed by the Steering Committee, where the head belongs to one of the two shareholders, namely CNRS or CEA and the deputy head to the other. At present, the director of the LLB is Mrs Christiane ALBA-SIMIONESCO, CNRS, and the deputy director Mr Jean-Paul VISTICOT, CEA. The management is supported by the administrative group. According to its double mission of providing neutron instrumentation and initiating science with neutrons, the scientific life is structured along a 2-D matrix. Three Scientific Axes i) Magnetism and Superconductivity, ii) Materials and Nanosciences, and iii) Soft Complex Matter form the vertical science groups, cross cut horizontally by three instrument groups i) Large Scale Structures, ii) Diffraction and iii) Spectroscopy. This kind of matrix is found at comparable neutron as well synchrotron sources and certainly is very much appropriate.

Both, Steering Committee and the directorate are advised by a Council for Science and Instrumentation (CSI) and by a committee reviewing the instrumentation. Recent reports from the CSI date from Nov. 2012 and Nov. 2013. The upgrade and renewal of instruments has been reviewed by an external committee in 2010 and a midterm review of the overall activities of the infrastructure was conducted by the AERES in May 2011. 2  Assessment of the unit Mission of the unit ORPHÉE is the national French neutron source for beam hole experiments. The LLB as a joint undertaking of CNRS and CEA is the research infrastructure to exploit the neutron source. Since its foundation the mission of the LLB focuses on the following point:

AERES nomenclature Unit workforce

•

Research on its own scientific programs.

• Promotion of the use of neutrons within the French academic and scientific community, dissemination of knowledge around the use of neutron radiation, academic education.

• Development, construction and operation of an international competitive instrument suite at ORPHÉE.

•

Open access of the instrumentation of LLB to the French and international user community under the condition of scientific merit, and providing full support for external users with the ultimate aim of publication of the scientific results achieved.

During the course of the year 2013 an additional task has been assigned to LLB:

• Being the French bridgehead for the scientific exploitation of the upcoming European Spallation Source (ESS) at Lund, Sweden.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The backbone of LLB, namely its neutron source ORPHÉE, has undergone its last safety assessment in 2009, the next will be in 2019. It also has passed with excellence the "Fukushima" stress test imposed to all nuclear facilities in France in 2012. As out-come of this stress test, measures have to be undertaken within a cost volume of 1.2 M€. In the forthcoming years, a continuous exchange of most of the beam holes will be necessary and detailed planning for this is on the way. With other words, ORPHÉE is a modern and excellently maintained nuclear facility with no obvious limitation in the foreseeable future.

Own research: In its own research, the LLB focuses on the three topics "Magnetism and Superconductivity", "Materials and Nanosciences", and "Soft Complex Matter". Accordingly, scientific life within the LLB is structured along these three topics. The Magnetism Group is world leading in its field, the Materials Group is very excellent, the Soft matter group is a very visible player, each time in comparison to the competitors at other national neutron sources. All three groups show a continuous development over the years. Magnetism has picked up extremely successful the most recent developments in superconductivity and even sets new trends, Materials has developed from classical materials sciences to Nanoscience and Soft Matter successfully moves towards Complex Soft Matter. For a detailed assessment see the reports to Theme 1 -3. A very visible proof of the scientific excellence of the LLB are its 175 peer reviewed publications per year on average. Dissemination and education: LLB supports an own PhD program with students distributed over the three scientific themes. Further, LLB organizes every year the post-doc training sessions "les FANS du LLB" (Formation A la Neutronique) including training on the instruments. Together with ILL, SOLEIL and ESRF, it participates in the training session of HERCULES. Regularly bachelor and master students from French universities come to LLB to perform experiments. 2/3 of the scientific staff at LLB is engaged in various teaching activities with French universities and engineering schools; moreover LLB is now an integrative part of the new University Paris-Saclay.

Competitive instrumentation: Staff at LLB understands very well, that an internationally competitive instrumentation is the base for its own research and for its task as service facility for the French neutron community. CAP 2015 followed by CAP 2017 are the answers to an instrumentation which dates back to the 80's. Today, 12 instruments have been renovated, upgraded, replaced or moved to more intense beam ports resulting in an increase of measurable neutrons at the detector by a factor of 26 on average. Currently four instruments are under construction with a deadline for completion around 2017. For instance FA# -the X-ToF instrument under construction -has the potential to become world leading in its class. Again, for a more detailed assessment see the report to Theme 4.

Open access, user service to the French and international scientific community: The LLB has an excellently organized user program. Twice a year, users are asked to submit their proposals, the evaluation of which happens by international renowned experts. On average the 19 instruments open to access are oversubscribed by a factor 1.8, a figure totally comparable with those at other neutron sources like SINQ, FRM II or ILL.

ESS: To keep its leadership in science with neutrons, Europe has launched the project of the European Spallation Source (ESS). France engages at ESS as it recognizes the strategic importance of science with neutrons in addressing the Grand Challenges of a modern high tech society. In consequence the LLB has been assigned as bridgehead to coordinate the French contribution in designing, building and operating the instrumentation of ESS. This will include in-kind deliverables. Currently the LLB organizes the interest of French groups, and seeks for collaboration with expert groups within Europe. In a certain way CAP 2017 is part of this new mission, here LLB tests new instrument ideas and instrument components, which may enter into the future ESS instrumentation. The visiting committee highly welcomes this additional orientation of the LLB, in particular giving LLB a clear long-term perspective. LLB with its expertise in instrumentation and with its national and international user base is in an excellent position to fulfil this task.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

The age pyramid of LLB is such that from 2013 -2015 LLB will lose 25 % of its research staff and person in charge of instruments due to retirement. The visiting committee has been told, that these departures will/can be replaced only partially. Further the visiting committee observed a heavy load on the scientific and technical staff with the clear risk of overload. The committee states that in case the above scenario enters into force the development of new instrumentation will become practically impossible and the scientific productivity of the laboratory and its French user community will be seriously compromised. Particularly the task as bridgehead to ESS will be in danger.

The visiting committee is concerned about the proposed shut down of ORPHÉE in 2020. Firstly, the French neutron community needs a local/national/easy accessible neutron source which serves as learning/training/preparing source for getting access at the international leading neutron source, namely the ILL. Today about 60 % of all French neutron experiments are performed at LLB, 30 % at ILL and 10 % abroad. The visiting committee doubts that creating more French CRGs at ILL can compensate the loss of ORPHÉE. Further, first neutrons at ESS will not be available before 2021 and another five years are necessary to develop an acceptable international user service. Also from that perspective a closure of ORPHÈE in 2020 is premature; France weakens its competitiveness just at the moment when the supposed to be world's best neutron source becomes available.

Comparing LLB with similar national neutron sources in Europe, the involvement of French universities at LLB seems to be less intense. Such an involvement may have multiple aspects like building innovative components for new instrumentation, building advanced sample environment, detaching thesis students for long term stays to LLB, visiting LLB with classes and training students at instruments, passing sabbaticals at LLB etc. Certainly all this happens to a certain extent at LLB, but from the viewpoint of the visiting committee, these contacts should be strengthened.

The discussion with the LLB thesis students showed an astonishing lack of vision of these students. The visiting committee believes this is also due to the lack of a coherent graduate education.

Recommendations

The relations to French university and foreign partners should be strengthened. In the current period of budgetary austerity, diverse inputs from universities and the regions supporting them to LLB would be of prime importance.

The new University Paris-Saclay seems to be a great chance to anchor LLB more deeply in the French university landscape. Yet the visiting committee would like to see more intense engagement of all the staff of LLB in participating actively at Paris-Saclay.

Within this context LLB is encouraged to increase the number of PhD students and especially post-docs by increased collaborations with universities (e.g. joint operation of instruments, joint appointment of staff, joint research groups).

Due to numerous collaborations, thesis students at LLB are related to a variety of French universities, each of which has its own "Écoles Doctorales". This is the reason why the thesis students at or detached to LLB do not experience a coherent graduate education. LLB should compensate for this structural incoherence by initiating an own graduate education with seminars organized by the students, lectures about future perspectives in research or industry, motivation to go abroad for a post-doc position etc. Industrial projects appear connected to a limited number of scientists and there is potential for further development.

The full operation of ORPHÉE until 2025 must be considered in order to give the French neutron community the means it needs to be competitive in the field of science with neutrons and to better bridge the gap to the start-up of ESS.

Recognizing that (i) ORPHÉE will have a finite live time, (ii) the French neutron community needs a local/national/easy accessible neutron source to be competitive on international level, (iii) France needs to train its user community for international scientific competition and has to provide a platform for instrument development, (iv) the development of a new neutron source from first ideas to realization takes at least 15 years, (v) such a source should emphasize spectral and directional brilliance and not intensity, it is highly recommended that France installs today a task force developing ideas for a future French neutron source, probably based on accelerator or laser technology.

Considering the LLB task to be the French bridgehead for the scientific exploitation of the future ESS, the largest efforts should be made to maintain the level of staffing in the current period of austerity and to increase it as soon as possible.

LLB has the strength to take a clearer lead on the development of one or several instruments at the ESS. This should benefit from stronger support from the LLB shareholders, including through in-kind participation to the ESS.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs LLB and its users published over the last five years on average 175 peer-reviewed papers. The majority of these publications appear in journals of very good impact factor. According to its major internal scientific activities and those of its users, the scientific life at LLB is structured along three axes: (i) Magnetism and Superconductivity, (ii) Materials and Nanosciences, (iii) Soft Complex Matter. In a kind of matrix the underlying instrumentation is structured perpendicular to the scientific orientation in the groups (i) Large Scale Structures, (ii) Diffraction and (iii) Spectroscopy.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The three research axes at LLB, are world leading, very excellent and a visible player within the leading neutron centers. Thanks to the instrumentation renewal programs CAP 2015 and CAP 2017, the instrumentation of LLB is international, very visible and competitive. New instruments like FA# might become world leading.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

Research with neutrons addresses the Grand Challenges of a modern high tech society and is therefore of strategic importance to France. The LLB is the leading French unit for research with neutrons, correspondingly is its social and economic impact. Via its user program LLB considerably interacts with various French universities. However the formation of Paris-Saclay is a unique opportunity for LLB to engage directly with its staff at a renowned university. This allows for LLB to have access to excellent students for bachelor, master and PhD thesis. LLB will be the bridgehead for the French scientific community to have optimal scientific access to the future European Spallation Neutron Source.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The matrix structure with its two crosscutting levels of scientific and instrument groups is perfectly appropriate for the future challenges of this large-scale facility. Technical as well as scientific staff is highly motivated and near to work overload. Not this potential work overload is seen as greatest threat for the units internal live, but the uncertainty about the unit's future. Appointing LLB to the French bridgehead for the scientific exploitation of ESS has been very much appreciated by the staff of LLB. Yet, the non-replacement of retiring staff in the next years may make this important task impossible to achieve.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

LLB has an own PhD program with thesis students related to the three research axes. Further it receives bachelor, master and PhD students from French universities using the instrumentation of LLB. Further LLB engages in special training programs like FANS du LLB or HERCULES. The participation of LLB at the University Paris-Saclay will reinforce the partnership between the large-scale facility and university. The majority of the PhD students belong to the "Écoles Doctorales" ED 107 "Physique de la Région Parisienne" and ED 470 "Chimie Paris-Sud".

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

Own in-house science, education and dissemination, neutron instrumentation and user service remain missions of LLB. The recently assigned additional mission as bridgehead for the scientific exploitation of the future ESS will set a new focal point. Renewing its own instrumentation becomes now also important for building instruments for the future ESS. Doing experiments at LLB will strengthen the competitive capability of the French community for exploiting the ESS. LLB will receive more and more users from the Nordic countries in order to enhance the competence of these communities, thereby strengthening their knowledge for hosting the ESS.

 Axis-by-Axis analysis

Axis 1:

Magnetism and Superconductivity

Manager's name:

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The activities in Axis 1 "Magnetism and Superconductivity" at the LLB focus on a number of key topics in these fields. These include studies of high-temperature superconductors, exotic ground states in 4f-electron systems, frustrated magnets, multiferroics and magnetism in molecular magnets. Members of Axis 1 are world leading in studies of such systems by neutron scattering, which was demonstrated impressively in the presentations during the site visit, as well as in the written reports. Indicators for the strength and world leading position of these activities are, among others, the following:

-High-precision studies of spin fluctuations in the cuprates reveal that these are likely responsible for the high transition temperatures observed in these materials. They are sensitive fingerprints of the electronic correlations in such systems. Publications in this field are in journals with very high impact factor (Nature, Nature Physics, Phys. Rev. Lett.). LLB scientists have presented many invited talks at conferences and established collaborations with other world leading groups (MPI Stuttgart, Minnesota).

-First observation of symmetry breaking in the pseudogap phase of the cuprates. Using polarised neutrons, it was demonstrated unambiguously and systematically that time-reversal symmetry is broken in all known members of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. These results are of high visibility and importance, highest impact in the community, publication in best journals, many invited talks at all major conferences. They present a unique use of the instruments at LLB for high-precision polarised neutron diffraction studies.

-The complex ground states and excitations in frustrated pyrochlores with varying spin symmetry studied by neutron diffraction and spectroscopy. Members of Axis 1 have for years been contributing ground-breaking results to our understanding of frustrated magnets like Er 2 Ti 2 O 7 , Er 2 Sn 2 O 7 , and Tb 2 Ti 2 O7. Many of these experiments were done e.g. under extreme conditions (high pressure, low temperatures, magnetic fields).

Once again these results are very important with high impact and recognition in the community.

Further important results were achieved in other areas covered by Axis 1. All of these activities have in common that the results are regularly published in journals with the highest impact factor, they are achieved using cutting edge experimental approaches that are often pioneered and brought to perfection by LLB, and they have above average impact in the broader scientific community. The international and national visibility of the activities of Axis 1 is very high.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Members of Axis 1 are world leading in their respective research fields, which makes them attractive partners in international and national collaborations. They are leading, involved in or regularly invited to multi-national projects e.g. with institutions in France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and USA and are active in attempts to attract European funding.

Several researchers of Axis 1 contribute to the activities of the neutron scattering community as members of evaluation committees for beam time allocation at other neutron sources and as scientific and technical experts in advisory boards e.g. for the European Spallation Source ESS. Furthermore, they are active in program committees and advisory boards for conferences.

A number of highly-talented young researchers were educated at the LLB in this unit, or attracted to work there as post-docs. It is rare that researchers with a considerable amount of other duties at a large-scale facility (user service, instrument development) are able to build up and maintain an academic reputation and appeal as high and attractive as the members of Axis 1.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

Many of the activities in Axis 1 are fundamental research, but are clearly of direct relevance and interest to people working in more applied areas of magnetism and superconductivity. These include the exploitation of related phenomena in future technologies (IT, energy, health). The culture and ambition of scientific excellence and innovation in Axis 1 is an asset to the social, economic and cultural environment in France that is independent of current politically motivated and short-sighted trends towards very applied topics in research.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The Axis 1 is part of the coherent strategy of the LLB to organise their researchers both in instrument groups and science groups (see also general part of the report). For Axis 1 this approach seems natural and efficient. Given the size of the unit no further organisation or hierarchy is needed. The unit is focussed on a number of key scientific questions and topics. The level of scientific exchange and discussions among members of Axis 1 and especially with younger researchers is very good.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

General aspects of training have been addressed in the general part of this report (e.g. practicals, link to university education, PhD program, training courses). The success in training through research of Axis 1 is demonstrated further by the appointment of several of their former PhD students as permanent staff by CNRS. The careers of these indicate that young researchers working in Axis 1 are encouraged to meet international standards e.g. in terms of scientific quality, output, and postdoc mobility.

The various multi-disciplinary activities of Axis 1, e.g. numerical simulations, interactions with theory groups, solid-state chemistry and sample preparation, and engineering related to instrument upgrades, add to the potential and attractiveness of the training of students including their transferable skills.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

Based on their previous successes, members of Axis 1 have clear visions both for their research program and for investments in instrumentation upgrades. The research program is well balanced between gain and risk and includes continuations of current studies of spin correlations and dynamics in frustrated magnets and superconductors, as well as more exploratory studies of materials showing topological effects.

The plan is feasible and based on the strengths of the involved researchers and instrumentation that is available at the LLB and elsewhere. Recent and future upgrades of instruments (e.g. 5C1, 6T2, 4F1) are well in line with the research strategy of Axis 1 and of the broader user community in France and internationally (new X-ToF spectrometer FA#).

Conclusion



Overall opinion of the theme:

-Axis 1 is a flagship scientific activity at the LLB. Members of Axis 1 are world leading in terms of scientific excellence, output and reputation in their fields.

-The proposed scientific program has the clear potential to be of clear benefit to the entire laboratory and to the broader user community of the LLB.



Strengths and opportunities:

-Strong in-house research with international visibility.

-Strong national and international partners.

-Excellent multi-disciplinary opportunities for the training of PhD students.

-As scientific leaders and experts for instrumentation members of Axis 1 can be involved in the activities of the LLB for the ESS.



Weaknesses and threats:

-Interactions with local universities could be stronger.

-The anticipated reduction of permanent staff from 13.5 FTE to 9.5 FTE by 2015 is the biggest threat.

-The present number of PhD students and postdocs is low in comparison to the number of staff and the scientific reputation of the unit.

-The scientific activities rely strongly on instruments at LLB (and ILL).



Recommendations:

-To maintain its world leading position, Axis 1 needs support of its research activities and funding at the level of today.

-The number of PhD students and especially postdocs should be increased by collaborations with universities (e.g. joint operation of instruments, joint appointment of staff, joint research groups).

-A long-term strategy should be development for the unit taking into consideration the present instrumentation at LLB, and future developments at ILL as well as at the ESS.

Axis 2:

Materials and Nanosciences -fundamental studies and applications

Manager's name: Axis 2 "Materials and Nanosciences -Fundamental Studies and Applications" focuses on several aspects of material science. It covers research on composite materials, confined / host-guest systems, disordered systems (liquids, glasses), metallurgy and some magnetic nanostructures. An evolution can be observed over the period towards the study of nanosystems, leading to novel results on nanostructured composite materials, alloys nanostructure, mesoporous systems.

The extent of research topics studied within this research axis is very broad. It includes cutting-edge topics such as e.g. the study of multiferroic BiFeO 3 epitaxial thin films from polarized neutron reflectivity measurements (PRL, 2008), that of the structure of metal-organic frameworks studying the deformation under inclusion and removal of guest molecules (PCCP, 2009), and the modelling of the distribution regimes for nanoparticles dispersed within polymers and steels for mechanical reinforcement using scattering techniques (Macromolecules, 2011, with axis 3). It covers areas where the expertise of LLB is essential, and that lead to applied or industrial results, in particular strain measurements and refinement of crystal structure.

Axis 2 benefits from the very wide range of instruments at LLB, in particular small-angle neutron scattering, reflectivity, diffraction on single crystals, powders and liquids (in particular with the recently upgraded 4-circle spectrometer 6T2).

With ca. 200 papers published in international journals, the productivity and quality of this axis is excellent. The indicated average impact factor of journals is 3.3, a clear indication of the high standard of publication. It is also highly visible at the international level with ca. 150 oral communications, among which ca. 40 invited.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

This axis is carried out in a strong collaborative context with academic and industrial partners from the international to the local level. Researchers from axis 2 have built partnerships with a large number of institutions (20 in France, 13 at the international level). An active partnership was launched in the period with the neighbouring SOLEIL synchrotron source.

Research was supported by a significant number of projects, including 3 European projects (FP7 NMI3), 9 ANR projects and 6 regional contracts (RTRA, C'nano). 5 students started working as a PhD in the 2008-2013 period in axis 2, and 5 other are shared between axis 1 and another axis. This is a quite limited number compared to the number of permanent staff members in the axis (16, among which 5 are also involved in other axes).

A Ph.D. student at LLB was awarded a prize in 2008 from Société Française de Neutronique on the coupling between ferroelectric polarisation and magnetic structure in BiFeO 3 single crystals (shared with axis 1).

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

Axis 2 leads to work for several industrial companies in particular strain measurements and characterisation of material reinforcement. Industrial partnerships were also supported within three industrial ANR grants (AMARAGE, PROMETFOR and AXTREM) on special steels (Aubert & Duval, Stévenin Nollevaux, Bourguignon Barré, Estamfor, La Foulerie, Raguet, Nitruvid Bodycote). Some of this work led to publication. A patent was filed in 2013 on the development of new cooling systems.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

For this area, please refer to LLB general assessment.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

For this area, please refer to LLB general assessment.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The scope of axis 2 was clarified gradually but increased visibility could be researched. The perspectives presented are prolongations of the lines of research of the last four years, taking into account the upgraded instruments that will be available within the future period. The current balance between fundamental and applied research is good and should be preserved. The launch of PA20 will allow renewed SANS measurements. The recent or on-going renovation of instruments is expected to provide new capabilities to LLB. Development of the novel imaging station IMAGINE could strongly benefit to axis 2, including for industrial use, as observed in several facilities at the international level (e.g. SINQ-PSI). Such developments should be supported with the aim at leading to world-class level.

Conclusion



Overall opinion of the theme:

In summary, LLB is a well-identified player in the field of material research on materials and nanosciences. The level of interaction within international, national and local projects is very significant and the quality of the scientific production is very high. Works on nano/heterosystems, physical metallurgy and disordered systems demonstrate the renewal of the research carried out over the recent years with a stronger focus on hot topics such as nanocomposites / nano-objects and host-guest systems, on top of the excellent research regarding metals, liquids and glasses at LLB. The effort of the team to recruit Ph.D. students in co-supervision and post-docs funded by ANR, CEA or Synchrotron SOLEIL should be strongly encouraged.



Strengths and opportunities:

-Research carried out in axis 2 is well-recognised and visible at the local, national and international level;

-good complementarity between instruments allowing research to be carried out at several length scales from atomic to meso-and even macroscale;

-upgrading of the instruments should benefit strongly to the future of the research;

-interactions with the industrial sector are good and could further develop along the lines of expertise of the team;

-consolidation of the Paris-Saclay University may constitute a unique occasion to tighten links with academic partners at regional level and relax the constraints regarding hiring of students and post-docs;

-industrial projects appear connected to a limited number of scientists and there is potential for further development.



Weaknesses and threats:

-Some instruments used by the group are not available any more, or may shortly be inaccessible, due to lack of staff to run them;

-imaging developments at IMAGINE could be better structured and should benefit from additional attention and support taking into account specific imaging requirements including data storage and processing. Evolution towards tomographic imaging could be planned;

-there is some degree of dispersion and overlap with other axes, e.g. regarding the study of magnetic materials;

-a too limited number of PhD students and post-docs participate to the axis research;

-the end of the NMI3 project may suppress a significant source of funding for the axis.



Recommendations:

Researchers from the axis need clarification from CEA and CNRS on the future of the installation and on instrumental operation. In particular, lack of staff required to run several end stations of key importance for axis 2 puts at risk some of the projects for the future.

Axis 3:

Soft Complex Matter

Manager's name:  Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The topics investigated in this "Soft complex matter" axis are numerous, extending from supramolecular organization of mixed polymeric systems and bio-inspired materials such as foams based on green tensio-actives or self-organized cellulose whiskers, dynamics of water in 3D and 2D leading to bio-issues such as protein denaturation in relation with interfacial water and crowding, and pore opening in bio-membranes. A more recently opened topic, thanks to a recent arrival in LLB, concerns the local structuration in ionic liquids and their potential re-organization in 1D.

The strength of the group relies on their ability to synthesize the complex media they are working on with a good coordination between the various on-site neutron techniques and complementary studies performed outside through their numerous collaborations.

Herein, we highlight essentially those investigations presented to the committee that have led to the main success stories.

Soft matter is essentially made-up with carbon and hydrogen so that neutron scattering is an appropriate technique for the study of its local structure. In particular, when the deuterated or partially-deuterated counterpart of a component (the solvent, a polymeric chain…) can be synthesized this offers the possibility of studying multicomponent systems by means of contrast matching or contrast variation. This successful road was opened in the seventies in the field of polymer solutions through a fruitful collaboration between LLB and Institut Charles Sadron in Strasbourg. This story is still going on and has recently given very fruitful results. This contrast matching has been applied to more complex systems such as composite materials made up with polymers and reinforcement fillers. Particularly clever choices of solvent allowing the extinction of the reinforcing fillers, which is frequently impossible, and also the fine chemical tuning of the structural organization of the filler have allowed one to follow the detailed conditions of reinforcement. The committee has unreservedly appreciated the nice piece of work carried out on mineral particles dispersed in a polymer matrix. Neutron scattering studies have been implemented by a complete battery of techniques (rheology, SAXS, TEM), which makes the study a very thorough one and by far a milestone in the field. This work has an impact both on fundamental science and on applied research. The involvement of Michelin as industrial partner in this work emphasizes clearly the latter point.

Another domain of interest is the study of long-lasting and stable foams recently developed and based on vegetal fatty acids in collaboration with INRA. A deep study carried out by small angle scattering and specular neutron reflectivity has determined both in bulk and at the interfaces, the thermal stability of the rod-like structures involved in the stabilization of the foam as crowding entities in the plateau borders. Even if the thermodynamic details of the rod/micelle transition leading to the foam destabilization remain to be explored, this seems to be a very promising direction to explore, which has created a buzz in popularization newspapers.

LLB possesses a deep experience in the study of the polyelectrolyte conformations and dynamics as a function of various parameters that is now extended to more complex systems by younger scientists exploring for example striking counterion effects in the chain-chain interactions in water. Now, they are also making nanomaterials by designing silver nano-objects or magnetic polymersomes for drug delivery control by hyperthermia. Polyelectrolytes remain beyond doubt a strong aspect of the science performed at LLB. It might be also of interest to study these polyelectrolytes in ionic liquids as scientists at LLB have now a new expertise on these peculiar and complicated liquids whose deuterated counterparts can be prepared on site.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The contribution of the scientific staff of this axis to soft complex matter problems is quite significant and more than often recognized worldwide. The committee members estimate that it should be rated as very excellent. This is supported by the number (of the order of 45 a year) and the quality of the publications from the group, the existence of collaborations with the best soft matter groups abroad and in France, and assessed by the significant number of invitations to international conferences for the permanent researchers.

The departure of major actors in this field, either through retirement or through appointment in other structures, may be detrimental to LLB. There are active young and dynamical researchers that may potentially bridge the gap but this might be a problem in the future, especially if the best elements are attracted elsewhere due to the blighted prospects ahead of ORPHÉE reactor with an expected closing-down in 2020.

Although excellent postdocs and Ph.D. students have been and are working at LLB, their number is relatively low in view of the potential attractiveness of the facility, and by comparison with Institutes of equivalent size and reputation. This is clearly due to the lack of funding from Universities for Ph.D. students and postdocs and from ANR grants directly coordinated by LLB. As was already emphasized in early reports LLB groups are not as successful as they should at attracting competitive funding, chiefly because funding agencies assume that they enjoy full financial support by CEA and CNRS. There is clearly an underfunding but the LLB should probably improve its communication towards the French community to modify this deceiving image of money in plenty.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

As a national large-scale facility LLB and more specifically axis 3 attracts users that collaborate directly with the permanent members as can be seen from the numerous joint publications. So most of the neutron users consider they need the expertise and knowledge of LLB members, involving them in ANR programs and contracts, they coordinate. Note the recent opening to a new research line in collaboration with AgroSup (Dijon) in food structuring involving a financed joined Ph.D., the collaboration with SOLEIL with joined Ph.D.'s and the voluntary engagement in the framework of the RTRA "Triangle de la Physique". As to the economic impact of research carried out in axis 3 it is still limited as only two contracts with industrial partners (Michelin and IFPEN) have been obtained.

Although LLB is primarily a laboratory dedicated to basic research, its relation with industries should be improved. This is especially the case for axis 3 as soft condensed matter is a field where applications derived from basic research are often close at hand. This seems to be again a matter of communication: dissemination of the research carried out in this axis should be improved. Participation in Carnot Institutes might also be a way to get in touch with the appropriate industrial partners Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The 3 axes have been created recently. The regrouping of researchers in axis 3 is utterly meaningful as it involves people with a similar approach to the problems in soft complex matter. This should be pursued, as it will be beneficial in the future. Although seminars specific to this axis are arranged on a regular basis, cross-collaborations appear to be not yet strong enough. There is a potential synergetic effect if interactions inside this axis are further developed. In any case, it is recommended to re-examine periodically which associations of researchers provide them with the best scientific interactions.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The members of axis 3 take their share for the training through research in the programs developed by LLB. It is noticeable that some of these members are particularly active in the framework of the "Société Française de Neutronique" and in the organization of their annual "Journées de la Diffusion Neutronique". Details are found in the general appreciation of this laboratory.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The 5-year project addresses major issues in soft matter and in biophysics. Nanocomposites and smart materials remains a domain of concern in axis 3. This is clearly a research field where they can make some breakthrough but where they have to seek collaboration with industrial partners.

There is also a clear orientation towards food science involving gelling agent or foam systems that are encountered in most nutriments. Although this is really complex matter, many scientists in this axis are capable of making significant contributions in what is regarded as "food structuring".

The 1-D confined of electrolytes in carbon nanotube might be a promising field with possible fallouts in the design of batteries. This appears to be a risky domain but this is part of fundamental research that should therefore be supported.

The project in biophysics is certainly interesting yet the number of scientists involved seems to be subcritical and outside collaborations missing. Studying the crowding on proteins in PEG is easy, but much trickier when it comes to use biological components. Involvement of biologists should be also sought there.

Conclusion



Overall opinion of the theme:

The research in Axis 3 has produced a remarkable set of results and publications on very diverse systems.



Strengths and opportunities:

The research groups in axis 3 combine competences and techniques that are rarely found elsewhere: they can prepare nanocomposite materials, characterize their structure by making a clever use of neutron contrast to solve pending questions.

The new SANS PA20 should provide them with an instrument capable of virtually rivalling with ILL's D11 camera. The X-TOF (Fa#) and upgraded Spin Echo spectrometer (MUSES) will further address the needs of the soft matter community.

 Weaknesses and threats:

There might be a risk of dispersion on the study of too many materials and a global coherence should be maintained. For the biophysics group, there is a risk that they find themselves cut off from the teams that perform forefront research in biophysics.

The number of external visitors for long stays should be increased. A similar remark holds for PhD and postdoctoral students.



Recommendations:

-Improve the collaborations within the theme for example through common ANRs or actions.

-Similarly focus on a more limited number of systems to keep a scientific coherence.

-Re-assess the opportunity of working on biological systems by establishing strong links with outside groups.

Part 4:

Instrumental & Technical groups

 Detailed assessments

The neutron source ORPHÉE is the backbone of the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB). The neutron source itself is operated by CEA. ORPHÉE has been taken into operation in the year 1980 and continuous maintenance and investment into the nuclear facility makes it today an extremely reliable neutron source, equipped with a thermal heavy water moderator, two powerful cold sources and one hot source. Altogether, ORPHÉE is worldwide one of the leading national neutron sources providing high fluxes of neutrons outside of the reactor core and moderators. National neutron sources of similar quality, mission and international impact are ISIS (GB), SINQ (Switzerland), FRM II (Munich, Germany), NIST research reactor (USA), BER-2 (Berlin, Germany), Opal (Australia). The third decennial safety assessment (group permanent) of ORPHÉE will happen towards the end of 2019.

All this powerful national sources have in the one or other way comparable fluxes. Increasing efficiency in using neutrons for basic science, engineering and industry comes from progress in the neutron extraction and subsequent innovative instrumentation, i.e. operating instruments is a continuous development task.

The altogether 19 beam instruments open for user access are operated in 2013 by three instrument groups, (i) Large Scale Structures, (ii) Diffraction, (iii) Spectroscopy. Additionally, one diffractometer and one spectrometer serve internal test needs. Further CEA/DEN operates one neutron tomography station for industrial needs. Taking the three Scientific Axes as scientific structure perpendicular to the division in instrument groups LLB is structured in a 2-D matrix; vertically oriented are the science groups, horizontally cross-cutting the instrument groups. This kind of matrix is found at comparable neutron as well as synchrotron sources and certainly is very much appropriate.

Most important are the efforts and achievements of LLB to modernise its instrumentation. Historically seen LLB started in the 80's with a very modern and internationally extremely competitive instrumentation, thereby largely profiting from the almost revolutionary instrument innovations at the international Institute Laue Langevin. This was followed by a period of exploiting this instrumentation for excellent science, driven by in-house personnel and the larger French community with considerable contributions from international users, for instance Germany with its Karlsruhe outstation at LLB and transferring the Resonant-Spin-Echo-Technology from Munich to LLB. The outcome was and is the well-known and internationally highly appreciated excellent publication statistics of LLB. However, focussing on scientific output, the instrumentation of LLB risked to become less competitive towards the end of the 90's. This has been very successfully counter steered by first launching CAP 2015 and today CAP 2017, two successive campaigns to modernize the instrumentation. From 2004 to today, 12 instruments have been renovated, upgraded, replaced or moved to more intense beam ports. Today, CAP 2017 comprises the construction of four either completely or almost new instruments with a deadline for completion around 2017. All four instruments are of immanent importance for LLB. FA# has the perspective to be world leading for inelastic instrumentation combining single-crystal monochromatisation with time-of-flight inelastic analysis. PA 20 will bring back to LLB a SANS instrument which can compete with those at ILL or FRM II. IMAGINE is urgently needed to serve industrial demands for process controlling, making visible on a μm scale the inner life of complex work pieces or to follow e.g. the hydrogen filling of fuel cells. Finally the banana type diffractometer G4.4 will give LLB a very high-resolution diffractometer, complementary to the high flux powder diffractometer G4.1 with higher flux, but yet not sufficient resolution.

LLB has presented plans for a new imaging station in line with the major demand and already in use at several top end facilities (FRM-II, SINQ). This development was well appreciated by the committee that sees here a new perspective for non-destructive study of different kind of materials on the micrometer scale. This development should be encouraged. Particular attention should be paid to of the achievable spatial resolution, field of view and case studies. It should also be addressed how the infrastructure will take into account the present and future requirements of handling large imaging datasets, e.g. from tomography measurements.

Modernisation of neutron instrumentation also comprises better extraction of the neutrons and efficient transport to the sample and finally to the detector. The visiting committee greatly appreciates that the modernisation includes replacement of neutron guides by more efficient super-mirror guides, better extraction of neutrons for instance for the triple axis spectrometers, increased investment into neutron polarisation in order to feed the never ending demand in analysing magnetic properties of materials.

In view of the importance of neutron research for basic science, engineering and industrial applications, France has decided to be one of the key partners of the European Spallation Source, the ground breaking of which most probably will happen in June 2014. The LLB centralizes the French knowledge in neutron instrumentation and exploitation of neutrons for science and industry. Therefore it has been assigned as the bridgehead for the French contribution to build the instrumentation of ESS and for its future exploitation by French scientists. The committee notes two strategically important points: firstly, ESS as a true European endeavour aiming at leading the international scientific competition among neutron sources, strongly depends on the multitude of European expertise in neutron instrumentation and expertise in service to the community; secondly, the benefit of the respective national contribution to ESS strongly depends on the involvement of the national community in the instrumentation of ESS and later its operation. Taking this into account, it is of prime interest for France to have a powerful bridgehead at Lund. To the unilateral opinion of the visiting committee LLB is best suited to do so and with time this task will become dominating -or at least equivalent with respect to the others missions of LLB.

To fulfil this mission, LLB has several assets and options: a) modernize knowledge in instrumentation, b) develop innovative components of neutron instrumentation, c) mobilize French laboratories at universities, engineering schools, CNRS and CEA in its multitude etc. for instrument development, d) to actively seek collaborations with expert groups outside France. Components a) and b) are to a certain extent fulfilled by the current instrumentation program at LLB, c) has to be strongly reinforced. Compared to its neighbours, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and to a certain extent also Spain and Italy, the knowledge in innovative neutron technologies spread around France is yet insufficiently activated for the instrumentation of LLB and for the future instrumentation of the ESS. With respect to d) LLB is actively seeking collaboration with expert groups in other European countries.

Part of the successful use of neutron instrumentation is the availability of a large suite of sample environment like very low and high temperatures, huge magnetic fields, very high pressure, stress machines, etc. Also with the help of its users LLB continuously modernizes it sample environment suite and in total the available sample environment is absolutely state of the art.

Conclusion

In summary, the modernisation of the instrumentation at LLB from 2006 to today has achieved an average gain in detectable useful neutrons by a factor of 26 for an investment of 11 M€, which is an extremely cost efficient modernisation. The suite of currently operating instruments fits quite well to the three scientific axes, thereby keeping in mind that the four instruments still under construction are very important to remain competitive on an international level. These additional instruments will also serve to compensate for the shut down of a few instruments over the last 10 years. Instrument beam time is overbooked continuously by a factor of 1.8.

With its new mission-being the bridgehead for French neutron instrumentation at ESS -LLB has a clear long term and also unique mission within the French neutron landscape. Important key recommendations to fulfil this mission are the following: explore now new neutron techniques to be innovative, incorporate to a much larger extent laboratories around France, in particular universities and engineering schools, continue international collaborations in the field of instrumentation.

One has to be aware that the new focus "instrumentation for ESS" will bind scientific as well as technical personnel at LLB, with the inevitable drawback that this activity goes on the expense of scientific publications -at least for a certain time period. But certainly, this is worth the effort. The condition to fulfil this task is a certain level of technical and scientific staffing. With the threat of not replacing staff, which will retire this and next year, this task is seriously endangered.



Overall opinion of the theme:

Well-adapted matrix structure for science and instrumentation.



Strengths and opportunities:

International competitive instrumentation at LLB: The renovation and upgrading of instruments is urgently needed, on very good track and has to be continued. Being the bridgehead for the "French" instrumentation gives LLB within France a unique mission, which definitely is best filled by the competences of LLB.



Weaknesses and threats:

Threat: In view of the impact of research with neutrons for modern society (energy, live & health sciences, mobility, sustainability, nano-& innovative materials, cultural heritage) France has decided to be one of the key partners of ESS. Key partners need access to a "home source" to be competitive in applying for beam time at the supposed to be best future neutron source. Without preparing its own national community for that competition, French investment at ESS will be used largely under value. The today envisaged closure of ORPHÉE around 2020 is definitely too early. The Institute Laue Langevin cannot replace a national "playground" for neutron science; on the contrary, early closure of ORPHÉE will also weaken the French position at ILL. Weakness: The French user community (universities, engineering schools, but also CNRS and CEA) has to become more directly involved at LLB. The visiting committee is aware that the French higher education system with its division in first class engineering schools and a broad distribution of good (sometimes very good) universities has not always the resources to participate in the exploitation of the French neutron source. In the neighbouring countries Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain the involvement of university labs in exploiting its national neutron source is much advanced.



Recommendations:

The development of an imaging instrument is likely to provide interest from academic and industrial users. LLB should clarify how it will handle large imaging datasets and imagine processing. Also a quite modern and excellent maintained neutron source like ORPHÉE will come to the end of its life cycle. In view of the role of Spallation Sources will play to provide neutrons in the future, the shareholders of LLB (CNRS and CEA) should start now to develop long term perspectives for a replacement of ORPHÉE as national neutron source. Recently upcoming ideas of brilliant accelerator or laser driven neutron beams could be an ideally suited alternative for a strong and innovative future national neutron sources. It is recommended to install now a task force evaluating this opportunity.

Being aware of the problems to finance an appropriate number of staff of LLB, it is recommended to progress in small and achievable steps. The shareholders are kindly asked to bridge the forthcoming "hard" years by their best efforts. On the other side, LLB is asked to activate more actively contributions from the French user community, in particular universities, engineering schools, regional funds, European funds for instrumentation.

In this period of austerity, it is of prime importance to communicate to the personnel of LLB the long term perspectives.

Unit workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	N1: Permanent professors and similar positions	7	6
	N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions	35	28
	N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties)
	N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.)	4	4
	N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.)	9	7
	N6: Other contractual staff (without research duties)	1	1
	TOTAL N1 to N6	56	46
	Unit workforce	Number as at 30/06/2013	Number as at 01/01/2015
	Doctoral students	15
	Theses defended	25
	Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	18
	Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken	10
	Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	28	26

  Mr Frédéric OTT /Ms Marie-Hélène MATHON

	Workforce
	Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents	As at 30/06/2013	As at 01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors	2	2
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	12.5	10.5
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)	3	3
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	1
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students	1	1
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	6.5
	TOTAL	26	16.5

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

Workforce Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

  Mr Fabrice COUSIN /Mr Jean-Marc ZANOTTI

		As at	As at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors	5	4
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	9	8
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)	1	1
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students	2	2
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties	1	1
	FTE for doctoral students	3
	TOTAL	21	16

 Supervising bodies' general comments

1 , -Mr. Didier HOUSSIN, president -Mr

Specific premises visited:

A visit of the instrumentation in both the reactor hall and the neutron guide hall and some of the chemical laboratories was integrated part of the visiting program.

Conduct or programme of visit:

An extensive visit of the instrumentation around ORPHÉE was part of the visiting programme. During the presentations Mr Klaus HASSELBACH, representative of CoNRS section 03 and Mr Claude ARNOLD representative of CoNRS section 05 IT were present. On Friday 31 th January a half hour phone conference took place with the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Mr Ian ANDERSON, Oakridge National Laboratory.

The well organized information sessions, intense and lively discussions after each presentation, together with the written reports, and the phone interview with the head of the Scientific Advisory Board allowed the committee to obtain a very clear view of the original research done by the LLB staff and its users, but also of the organisation of the user service and its innovative instrumentation. Meeting with the "conseil d'unité" 10h10 -10h20

Coffee break 10h20 -11h20

Meetings with the different "colleges" 10h20 -10h40

Meeting with technicians 10h40 -11h00

Meeting with PhD students & postdocs 11h00 -11h20

Meeting with researchers/engineers 11h20 -12h00

Meeting with CEA and CNRS representatives 12h00 -13h00

Lunch: Buffet open to all 13H00 -17H00 Meeting of the committee (closed) Specific points to be mentioned:

No specific events are to be reported. The vising committee congratulates the LLB team for the excellent organization of the visit and in particular for pedagical excellent and very informative oral presentations and lively and critical discussion.