Client success – TVB Associates Inc.

Launch of user program with new powder diffraction capability

TVB Associates is pleased to have supported have supported the Canadian Neutron Beam Laboratory (CNBL) at McMaster University in scientific instrument design services leading up to the opening of the neutron powder diffraction capability with a formal user proposal system.

The CNBL is currently accepting proposals for experiments on the McMaster All-Purpose Diffractometer (MAD). To perform neutron diffraction, this instrument was upgraded with an 80-degree area detector recovered from the former Canadian Neutron Beam Centre. TVB assisted with the integration of the detector into the hardware and instrument control system of MAD.

Some of the first results from user experiments from this instrument were featured at the 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering (CINS), held on November 14 and 15 at the Université de Montréal.

Users may apply via the CNBL website: https://nuclear.mcmaster.ca/neutron-beams/

Launch of the Canadian Neutron Beam Laboratory

TVB Associates Inc is pleased to have supported McMaster University in scientific instrument design services leading up to the launch of the Canadian Neutron Beam Laboratory at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor.

This facility will serve many researchers across Canada by providing uique and powerful research and educational opportunities.

Client article: https://news.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-celebrates-launch-of-new-canadian-neutron-beam-laboratory/

Canadian Neutron Long-Range Plan for 2025 to 2035

TVB Associates is pleased to have supported the Canadian neutron beam community and Neutrons Canada in the strategy, planning, writing and production of the Canadian Neutron Long-Range Plan for 2025 to 2035.

The Plan outlines the path to maximize impacts in clean energy and the environment, safety and security, health and food security, and quantum innovation, through research using neutron beams.

Client article: https://neutrons.ca/news-item/release-of-the-canadian-neutron-long-range-plan-for-2025-to-2035/

Implementation of partnership agreement with international neutron source

TVB Associates is pleased to have supported Neutrons Canada by implementing activities under its first international partnership agreement, which provided access to the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in the United Kingdom and promoted cooperation between Canada and this facility.

One result of this partnership is that ISIS has awarded 20 research groups across Canada with beam time over over approximately 16 months, and funds to cover travel costs for researchers to conduct their experiments.

Client article: https://neutrons.ca/news-item/isis-awards-canadians-beam-time/

Consensus building for research infrastructure

TVB Associates was pleased to support Neutrons Canada and the Long-Range Plan (LRP) Panel in project-managing and implementing a two-year consensus-building consultative process to produce the Canadian Neutron Long-Range Plan for 2025 to 2035.

As the final consultative event in the LRP process, TVB Associates supported Neutrons Canada to gather the Canadian neutron beam user community with leaders from nine of the brightest neutron sources in the U.S. and Europe, who were vying for a partnership with Canada.

The meeting revealed broad support for the overarching recommendation of the LRP Panel for a national program for infrastructure for research and development with neutron beams.

The LRP, to be released in the coming months, calls on the federal government to allocate funds reaching about $25M/year for a national neutron beam program to be managed by Neutrons Canada. The expected scale and complexity of this program will place Neutrons Canada within among Canada’s portfolio of Major Research Facilities.

Client article: https://neutrons.ca/news-item/lrp-mcmaster/

Consensus-building on funding policy

TVB Associates was pleased to support Neutrons Canada in organizing and reporting on a consensus-building event at Canadian Science Policy Conference. This event gathered leaders of Major Research Facilities across Canada, as well as policy experts, science administrators, and researchers.

Attendees deliberated the recommendations of Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System regrading a new funding framework for Major Research Facilities.

The panelists and participating research facility leaders formed a consensus on the essential components of the funding framework and provided a report to government Ministers and civil servants responsible for funding policy for Major Research Facilities and the associated Major Science Initiatives.

Client article: https://neutrons.ca/news-item/consensus-building-on-funding-policy-for-major-research-facilities-at-the-2023-canadian-science-policy-conference/

Read the session report

Partnership negotiated for Canadian access to ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

TVB Associates is pleased to have supported Neutrons Canada in negotiating its first international partnership agreement, which will promote cooperation between Canada and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in the United Kingdom.

Client article: https://neutrons.ca/news-item/new-partnership-will-expand-canadian-access-to-isis-neutron-and-muon-source/

Neutron Long-Range Plan consensus building session

As project manager of the on-going process to develop the Canadian Neutron Long-Range Plan for 2025 to 2035, TVB Associates was pleased to support the organization of a consensus building session at the CINS Science Conference in March 2023, in cooperation with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

The session, entitled “Building Expertise for Canadian Neutron Scattering”, gathered input on topics such as EDI, indigenous issues, student and post-doc issues, outreach to industry, and attraction of experts for roles such as instrument scientists.

The outcomes of the session will feed into the development of the Neutrons Long-Range Plan.

TVB Associates is continuing in the role of project manager of the Neutrons Long-Range Plan, now directly supporting Neutrons Canada to act in its new role as the institutional steward of the Neutrons Long-Range Plan.

For more information about the Neutron Long-Range Plan, visit: https://neutrons.ca/lrp2025/

SNOLAB awarded increased operating funds, $102 million over six years, from the Canada Foundation for Innovation

Canadian leadership in inspiring fundamental research just got a boost.

SNOLAB is Canada’s deep underground research laboratory, famous as the location for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment, which led to the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Canadian Arthur McDonald. Following completion of the SNO experiment, this two kilometre deep lab was expanded to host multiple experiments and relaunched as SNOLAB in 2012. It has since continued expanding and is now an international-scale laboratory hosting more than a dozen experiments conducted by large international scientific teams.

The increased operating funds awarded through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Major Science Initiatives (MSI) program are essential to SNOLAB’s expansion and its ability to host the world’s most advanced experiments in astroparticle physics that provide insight into the nature and evolution of the universe. Hosting and participating in these experiments boosts Canada’s scientific reputation, attracts scientific talent and partnerships, and inspires a spirit of discovery, innovation, and collaboration.

SNOLAB has been awarded $102M over six years, up from $76M over 5 years in 2017-2022 (source: CFI awards list). The CFI funds at most 60% of a Major Research Facilities’ operating costs, and the balance must be found from other sources, typically cash funding from provincial governments and in-kind contributions of partners.

What’s more is that this increase came through a heavily oversubscribed competition. The budget for this MSI competition, after adjusting for inflation and some policy changes from the last competition for the 2017 to 2022 term, was essentially flat. Yet the 16 facilities funded previously were competing with 18 other facilities that were trying to get into this MSI fund, were deemed eligible, and were invited to apply by the CFI.

TVB Associates was pleased to support SNOLAB in its proposal to the CFI MSI Fund by writing and editing core sections of the proposal.

Author: Daniel Banks, President, TVB Associates Inc.
Photo: CFI MSI funding announcement (source: SNOLAB)
Client article: SNOLAB welcomes major federal investment (Aug 19, 2022)

National Proposal for $55M Neutron Beam Infrastructure Project Submitted

Led by the University of Windsor, 18 universities across Canada have submitted a national proposal to the CFI 2023 Innovation Fund for a $55M project for neutron beam infrastructure as an essential contribution to the national neutron strategy. Neutron beams, which complement x-rays, are versatile and irreplaceable probes of materials and are required by a community of 125 Principal Investigators across Canada.

The proposal, entitled “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering, Phase 2”, is for infrastructure to provide neutron beams for research on materials for (1) clean energy technology, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through innovative battery packs for cars and for wind and solar energy, and through advanced nuclear energy; (2) health and food sustainability, to understand and treat disease or develop new plant-based foods that can replace more resource-intensive animal-based ones; and (3) quantum technology, to lay foundations for breakthroughs in faster information technology devices. It will also enable a radiation therapy that uses neutrons to trigger drugs to emit cell-killing alpha particles inside brain cancers.

Part 2 builds on the McMaster-led national CFI 2020 IF award “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering” (Part 1). Part 1, a $47M project, is adding neutron beamlines at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor and creating two 6-year partnerships with foreign neutron sources. Part 2 will create further 6-year partnerships so Canadians can access essential and world-leading neutron capabilities. It will also build a prototype neutron source with the potential to make neutron beams much more accessible in Canada in the long term.

TVB Associates was pleased to have a central role in the proposal to the CFI and in parallel proposals to the provinces for matching funds, including developing the strategy, building the national team, project managing its many components, writing applications to proceed through the internal processes of each partner university, negotiating with the foreign partners, and writing the CFI Innovation Fund proposal drawing on the contributions of the many team members and partners.

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