The Cockcroft Institute | News - The Cockcroft Institute

June 18, 2026

CLARA Successfully Completes First Friendly User Experiments at 250 MeV

Between January – April 2026, the CLARA facility at Daresbury Laboratory successfully hosted a first run of friendly user experiments at its design energy of 250 MeV. Some of the users during their experiments at CLARA. Clockwise from top left:…

June 1, 2026

Cockcroft Institute secures four Horizon Europe awards to shape the future of research infrastructures

The Cockcroft Institute (CI) through experts from the University of Liverpool is playing a leading role in four newly awarded Horizon Europe projects that will help define the next generation of large-scale research infrastructures. Supported with more than 25 M€,…

May 27, 2026

GAEC Hosts Major International SAPPHIRE Workshop to Boost Cancer Treatment Capacity in Africa

The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), through its Radiological and Medical Sciences Research Institute (RAMSRI), has successfully hosted a high-level international training workshop under the Supra-African Physics Partnership for Health Innovation and Radiotherapy Expansion (SAPPHIRE) Project. The week-long workshop, held…

May 13, 2026

European Experts Gather in Darmstadt to Shape New Doctoral Network on AI for Particle Accelerators

Researchers, accelerator experts, and industrial stakeholders from across Europe gathered at Technische Universität Darmstadt on 7–8 May 2026 for the ARTIFACT-DN Workshop, a strategic meeting dedicated to preparing a competitive proposal for a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) under…

May 12, 2026

Members of Cockcroft Institute join PACRI annual meeting in Lisbon

The PACRI (Plasma Accelerator systems for Compact Research Infrastructures) project held its first annual meeting at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisbon, Portugal from 24th to 26th March. With more than €10 million funding from the European Union and…

May 7, 2026

Rob Appleby appointed Associate Vice President for Students

We are pleased to announce that CI expert Professor Rob Appleby has been appointed Associate Vice President for Students at the University of Manchester. In his new role, Rob will provide academic leadership for the entire student journey, including admissions,…

May 4, 2026

RL4AA’26 Workshop hosted in Liverpool

Participants at the RL4AA'26 workshop The fourth edition of the Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Accelerators (RL4AA’26) workshop was held in Liverpool from 30th March to 1st April 2026 as a LIV.INNO workshop. The workshop also received sponsorship from the Cockcroft Institute and Radiasoft.…

May 1, 2026

PhD successes from Liverpool’s QUASAR Group

The University of Liverpool's QUASAR Group, based at the Cockcroft Institute, is delighted to celebrate the successful completion of three doctoral theses by Ondrej Sedlacek, Oliver Stringer and Catherine Swain. Their work spans cutting-edge accelerator diagnostics, contributing to major international facilities including CERN’s Large Hadron…

April 29, 2026

New laser-hybrid accelerator design strengthens vision for next-generation radiotherapy research facility

A major milestone has been reached in efforts to transform particle-beam therapy and radiobiology, as the team behind the LhARA collaboration publishes a Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for the Ion Therapy Research Facility. Close up of SCAPA facility, where the…