GDRi XFEL-Science

The goal of the XFEL-Science network is to develop the French user community of soft and hard X-ray Free Electron Laser sources and to strengthen its national and international visibility. To achieve these goals the XFEL-Science network aims at structuring the existing community and at acting as contact point for gathering of XFEL science related information and their distribution to the interested scientific community. For newly interested scientists this will facilitate obtaining up-to-date information about current performance parameters of the existing XFEL sources and beamlines and scientific programs developed at and around these sources, about existing scientific collaborations and their specific scientific goals as well as about upcoming meetings and other related events.
Experiments at XFEL sources are typically realized by collaborations of a larger number of scientists originating from several different laboratories. Together, they have the knowledge, experience, resources and man-power necessary to successfully conduct an experiment at one of these large scale facilities. The XFEL-Science network therefore aims at facilitating for French scientists to initiate and lead new collaborations or to strengthen existing ones. For scientists newly interested in XFEL science, XFEL-Science network offers the possibility to join an existing collaboration or to find others to create a new collaboration around a common scientific interest. For scientists already involved in XFEL experiments, the XFEL-Science network gives the possibility to strengthen their research team. All scientists will benefit from the exchange of experiences gathered by those who participated in an XFEL experiment.
Furthermore, the XFEL-Science network will document scientific activities and interests of the French user community. This will lead to an increased visibility, nationally as well as internationally, which will facilitate for funding agencies and international organizations, like the XFEL laboratories themselves, to identify the French XFEL user community and to get into contact with it.
Staff scientists from existing or upcoming XFEL laboratories, which are today all located outside of France, participate as international partners in this XFEL-Science network, which is in France organized as a Groupement de Recherche internationl (GDRi) of the CNRS.