As part of her recent visit to Daresbury Laboratory, the Prime Minister Theresa May was shown the VELA and CLARA accelerator R&D facilities by senior members of the Cockcroft Institute, highlighting the key technological and scientific developments being undertaken with industrial and academic collaborators. The Daresbury Sci-Tech campus was chosen as the location for her first regional Cabinet meeting, which was used to launch the Government’s new Industrial Strategy green paper. The new strategy includes plans for investment into research and innovation, development of technical skills in science, technology, engineering, maths and digital proficiency, and supporting businesses and entrepreneurs.
The Prime Minister Theresa May meeting with (left) Peter McIntosh (ASTeC Deputy Director), Brian Bowsher (STFC Chief Executive), Luke Bladen (Graduated Apprentice), William Spencer and Thomas Kelley (Apprentices) and (right) with Susan Smith (Head of Daresbury Laboratory and ASTeC Director)
Susan Smith recounts from her interactions with the Prime Minister, “It was a great honour to welcome the Prime Minister to the laboratory and I am incredibly pleased to say that she was fascinated by the accelerator research that we carry out here at Daresbury. She was also very impressed by the training opportunities that we provide for engineering apprentices“.