After a long period in which many of the Cockcroft Institute’s staff and students have mainly worked from home, we are now transitioning to a mode in which a much larger proportion will be spending all or part of each working week at Daresbury Laboratory and/or the associated labs at our partner university campuses. This is especially the case for our STFC staff who have major responsibilities for the maintenance and operation of Daresbury Laboratory facilities. We are also welcoming a new cohort of PhD students to the Institute this autumn and are pleased to be able to resume face-to-face teaching and supervision.

Despite the disruptive nature of the pandemic and the ensuing national lockdowns, the Cockcroft Institute was able to continue its business as efficiently and effectively as possible during 2020/21. Whilst experimental operations were suspended for a few months, the majority of these activities have now resumed, whilst many other types of work have been able to continue online. These include our world-renowned education and training programme; software, modelling and simulation; data analysis from recent experiments, dissemination of knowledge through publications, online conferences, and workshops; collaborative projects with businesses; applications of accelerators for security, healthcare and the environment; and our highly praised public engagement programmes.