December 2025 ESRFnews
INSIGHT
10
an ESRF–MSCA cofund that saw
nearly 40 doctoral students kick-
start their careers at the ESRF and
the ILL, with joint supervision
from academia and industry. The
success of InnovaXN led to second
MSCA co-funded PhD programme,
NEXTSTEP, in which industrial
supervision is optional but in which
the related societal challenge must
be explicit. Another MSCA cofund,
ENGAGE, involves the ESRF for
PhDs focused on machine learning
in cultural heritage. Not all cofunds
involve the Commission: co-funded
by the French government through
the Université Grenoble Alpes
UGA GATES is offering 24 PhD
projects averaging three per year
jointly supervised by scientists from
the ESRF and the UGA
All this has really flourished
thanks to ESRFEBS say Gema
MartínezCriado and Michael
Krisch the ESRF directors of
research Before that we never had
such a large number of cofunded
doctoral programmes
Jon Cartwright
Are there any higher-education
programmes that deliver
qualifications?
Yes – beginning with the ESRF’s
Masters programme, in which the
facility hosts experimental projects
proposed by scientists at various
universities in Europe and beyond.
There is also the ESRF’s own PhD
programme, which relies on core
funding to provide 30 positions
to students from universities at
ESRF partner countries. But the
possibilities have really broadened
since the launch of the Extremely
Brilliant Source (EBS) in 2020.
How so
One justification for the EBS is its role
in addressing major societal challenges
in areas such as health energy and
the environment as recognised by
the European Commission For that
reason the Commission has helped to
fund PhDs via its Marie Skłodowska
Curie Actions MSCAs at major
infrastructures that align with
these topics
The first of these programmes
recently completed was InnovaXN
Students enrolled in
the HERCULES
school tour the
ESRF.
What range of education is the ESRF
involved in?
One of the main ways is through
various “schools” on the EPN campus
in Grenoble, where the ESRF is
situated. Every year, for instance,
more than 1,500 high-school pupils
come to the ESRF for a day-long
Synchrotron@School, co-organised
with the Académie de Grenoble,
in which they learn about science
performed at the ESRF, and the
types of careers that are possible.
There is also a Summer School for
undergraduates, who undertake a
four-week experimental project in
a research group at the ESRF or the
neighbouring Institut Laue-Langevin
(ILL) neutron facility. Yet another
school is HERCULES, coordinated
by the Université Grenoble Alpes for
PhD students and postdocs.
What makes HERCULES special?
HERCULES is widely seen as the most
important educational school in which
the ESRF is involved, because it offers
an intensive five-week course that
provides both theoretical grounding
and unique, hands-on experience at
some of the world’s most advanced
large-scale facilities. Young researchers
gain practical skills that cannot be
acquired in a conventional university
setting, through work directly on
instruments at the ESRF, the ILL
and four partner laboratories. The
curriculum spans physics, chemistry,
biology, materials science and even
cultural heritage, demonstrating
the extraordinary application of
synchrotron and neutron techniques
Now approaching its 35th year
HERCULES can boast of alumni in
numerous top positions in academia
industry and facility management
for instance Clemens Schulze
Briese a member of the board of
directors at DECTRIS detectors
Giacomo Ghiringhelli a professor at
the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and
the current chair of the ESRF Science
Advisory Committee and Sakura
Pascarelli the scientific director of
the European XFEL
With the possibilities of the EBS, and co-funded PhD programmes, there is more education
and training at the ESRF than ever before.
Following the light