The Institute of Physics Particle Accelerator and Beams Group sponsored a meeting of UK accelerator professionals on 13th January 2014 at the Cockcroft Institute to discuss the accelerator science and technology opportunities that would be afforded by the proposed CLARA Test Facility. Over sixty people attended the event, chaired by Jim Clarke (ASTeC), to hear presentations about the status of the project, the accelerator design, and the ideas that different groups have for making use of the high quality electron beam that would be available. Two of the talks reflected the fact that CLARA is primarily an FEL test facility, particularly focussed on ultra short pulse generation, but the others covered a wide variety of other applications from plasma acceleration, to dielectric accelerators, to advanced beam dynamics benchmarking, to a technology test bed for advanced diagnostics and high repetition rate photoinjectors, and even as an injector into novel circular accelerators. The breadth of the potential applications was truly impressive, and clearly demonstrated the enthusiasm and strength of the accelerator community.  Several speakers identified that the science can start as soon as the front end is installed, which is currently scheduled for early 2015, and some experiments will even be starting in 2014 utilising VELA.

The presentations from the meeting can be found at: https://eventbooking.stfc.ac.uk/news-events/iop-clara-community-meeting-194?agenda=1 (link opens in a new window)