The SA-ESRF-2019 Conference took place on 11-13 November 2019 : Johannesburg.

The meeting builds on more than a decade of deep commitment to develop the ESRF User Base in South Africa. The broadness of the current user base already reflects the global nature of science and the ESRF as a leading international facility. The SA-ESRF relationship forms part of a wider context of the full Light Source User Base of South Africa, which accessed many Light Sources available around the world. The ESRF had been selected by the SA Community for Scientific Associateship as it was an International Facility, which has some premier and unique features, and which is especially heavily used by South Africa, to a level comparable to other smaller European nations. It also plays the role of supplying central innovation for other Light Sources, and extended capacity for special training as its staff complement is about a factor of two more than for other light sources. All light sources accessed by South Africans remain important to our User Base, either because of a niche competence, special collaborative networks, or efficiencies of access.   

In the meeting, delegates explored the enhanced capacity of the ESRF following the upgrade of the ESRF to an Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS). The ESRF was represented by the top leadership, including the Director Dr Francesco Sette, the two Research Directors Harald Reichert (Physical Sciences) and Jean Susini (Life Science), as well as four leading beamline scientists. The latter represented all major areas of research for South Africa. The ESRF-EBS represents an impressive increase in the performance of both the source and the detectors: 100 fold improved emittance and 10 to 1000 times better detector performance depending on the context. In addition to dramatic enhancement the usual spectroscopies and imaging techniques, novel techniques and opportunities emerge. The dramatic improvement and novelty analytical and imaging modalities means there is not really an established user-experience yet and so the exploitation of the new capacity requires partnerships with beamline scientists. This meeting extended the possibility for all SA Users and also potential new users to grow their connections with the ESRF or launch new ones. This should lead to the development of proposals ready for March 2020.