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Report reveals impact of £1.8billion+ on UK science and economy by Diamond Light Source

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IMAGE: Breakdown of impact areas mapped as part of this report
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Credit: Diamond Light Source/Technopolis

A recent study by Technopolis and Diamond estimates a cumulative monetised impact of at least £1.8 billion from the UK’s synchrotron, Diamond Light Source, reflecting very favourably with the £1.2 billion investment made in the facility to date. And it costs less than a cup of coffee as each taxpayer contributes only £2.45 a year towards it. The study, published today (26 May), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4769839 set out to measure and demonstrate Diamond’s scientific, technological, societal, and economic benefits. The report summarises the findings and highlights the significant impact it has achieved to date.

Chief Executive of Diamond, Professor Andrew Harrison OBE, comments; “Diamond’s mission is to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research. We do this by providing our users in academia and industry access to our state-of-the-art facilities enabling them to fulfil their research goals across a wide variety of scientific disciplines. This report illustrates the fantastic benefits the facility has delivered and brilliant science being achieved by our 14,000-strong user community, who are tackling some of the most challenging scientific questions of the 21st century. We are so grateful to our funding agencies UKRI’s STFC and the Wellcome for their trust and ongoing support.”

Diamond was set-up as an independent not for profit company through a joint venture, between the UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, the Wellcome Trust – each respectively owning 86% and 14% of the shareholding.

Some of the highlights from the report include:

  • Research Output – 9,600 articles, resulting in a cumulative impact to date of £677 million in terms of the production of research output – based on the opportunity cost of time spent developing publications based on data collected on the facility’s instruments and assume that the wage of researchers reflects the values of their time to society.
  • Patents – collectively valued at £10.2 billion (in 2018 prices). The exact criticality of Diamond in each case is unknown – but some proportion of this considerable sum can be ‘claimed’ by Diamond. A conservative estimate is around 1%, meaning Diamond’s contribution could be worth at least £103 million.
  • The study also developed 28 case-studies of breakthrough science achieved at Diamond from the plastic degrading enzyme to the new synthetic vaccine against the Foot-and-Mouth disease virus, as well as academic and industrial use of Diamond, and suppliers of the facility.
  • Software and applications – An estimated £51.3 million valuation for the software and applications produced at Diamond.
  • Training – £8.8 million in training provided through Diamond (for free), based on 19,191 days of training across 7,668 attendees in the past five years and commercial rates for similar courses.
  • Wider Societal Benefits – 80,000 visitors reached to date through a programme of engagement supporting the UK Skills’ agenda in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Plus, increased awareness of the value of STEM subjects to everyday lives through many news articles and outreach activities.

Professor Mark Thomson, Executive Chair of STFC, adds: “Diamond is an asset to STFC’s world-leading science estate at RAL. With support from STFC, the Diamond research facility continues to deliver both economic growth and research impact on behalf of the UK. It brings together the best of British science, as well as fostering multi-disciplinary research activity with a wide range of global collaborators. Diamond continues to deliver against real-world challenges, with some of their recent successes including enhancing our understanding of the Covid-19 virus.”

Tom Collins, Acting Head of Genetics and Molecular Sciences at Wellcome, says: “Diamond has delivered world-leading scientific advances through the innovation and excellence of the people who built and operate the synchrotron, in collaboration with the UK’s scientific community. The report highlights the real-world impact of Diamond’s leading research and the continued efforts that it makes to engage the wider public, complementing Wellcome’s mission to solve the most urgent health challenges facing everyone.”

Neil Brown, Managing Consultant at Technopolis concludes: “Diamond is clearly a critical piece of the UK’s national infrastructure, providing cutting-edge imaging and testing capabilities for a wide variety of fields and sectors. The importance of the facility, to both UK academics and businesses, was obvious from the users and stakeholders that we consulted, who were highly positive about the quality of Diamond’s offer (both the technical capabilities and the accompanying support services). Capturing, demonstrating and measuring the broad range of benefits that flow from such investments is no easy task, but this is an essential part of the responsibility for the use of public funds. We commend Diamond for its enthusiasm to better understand its impact, as well as to further developing its monitoring and evaluation activities going forward, such that it is even better placed in future to capture the manifold benefits that it enables.”

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For further information please contact Diamond Communications: Lorna Campbell +44 7836 625999 or Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke +44 1235 778130

Editors Notes: A copy of the report can be found in this link https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4769839 embargoed until Wednesday 26thMay 16:00 BST.

Diamond Light Source: http://www.diamond.ac.uk Twitter: @DiamondLightSou?

Diamond Light Source provides industrial and academic user communities with access to state-of-the-art analytical tools to enable world-changing science. Shaped like a huge ring, it works like a giant microscope, accelerating electrons to near light speeds, to produce a light 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, which is then directed off into 33 laboratories known as ‘beamlines’. In addition to these, Diamond offers access to several integrated laboratories including the world-class Electron Bio-imaging Centre (eBIC) and the Electron Physical Science Imaging Centre (ePSIC).

Diamond serves as an agent of change, addressing 21st century challenges such as disease, clean energy, food security and more. Since operations started, more than 14,000 researchers from both academia and industry have used Diamond to conduct experiments, with the support of approximately 760 world-class staff. More than 10,000 scientific articles have been published by our users and scientists.

Funded by the UK Government through the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and by the Wellcome Trust, Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world, and its pioneering capabilities are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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