Explore LINXS Annual Report 2025 Highlights
We are proud and happy to share our Annual Report 2025 Highlights with you!
Read about our key events, impact and thematic activities during the year!
Foreword from our Director Trevor Forsyth
2025 was marked by one of the most important events in the history of LINXS: the move into The Loop at Science Village in Brunnshög. It represents the fulfilment of a major goal of establishing LINXS as an advanced studies institute right at the heart of Science Village between MAX IV and ESS and supporting the development of the science and innovation ecosystem being built around them.
This followed a huge amount of planning over many years but was finally completed rapidly and efficiently over little more than a single week in March. The impact of the new working environment was almost immediate for the LINXS community, with activities benefitting from the extended and purpose-designed space and a huge increase in direct interaction with MAX IV and ESS facility staff and scientists. In addition, The Loop provides us with some exceptional neighbours in the form of Camurus, Catator, Science Village Scandinavia, Altitude Meetings, the Swedish Chips Competence Centre (SCCC), and the remarkable Science Village Hall. This constitutes a unique blend of academic and industrial enterprise, co-located with a common motivation for a collaborative science environment. We should also not forget to mention Vectura, our hosts in The Loop building, who work tirelessly to maintain this exceptional environment in which we now work.
Science Village itself is also starting to take shape and is now optimally positioned to become a major international hub for science and industry over the years and decades to come. The MAX IV synchrotron radiation facility is undergoing major scientific development, and the European Spallation Source (ESS) is set to start operating in 2027, with an ongoing ramp-up of its national and international user communities. On the other side of the tramline from LINXS, the Space building is also now open and active. Lund University is, of course, a key player in this environment. Plans for the establishment of a nanoscience centre have reached an advanced stage, and there have also been extended discussions about the relocation of specific departments (or parts thereof) to Brunnshög. LINXS, with its extensive local, national, and international collaborative base, is well positioned to help facilitate these developments.
In Midsummer week, LINXS held an inaugural conference in Science Village Hall that was attended by some 350 delegates from all over the world and hosted presentations ranging from laser physics to soft matter, structural biology, medical imaging, and cultural heritage.
The conference was opened by Tom Erixon, President and CEO of Alfa Laval and Deputy Chair of the Lund University Board. A number of key announcements were made, including one from Sven Lidin on behalf of the Crafoord Foundation about a major award to LINXS, and another from Olof “Charlie” Karis congratulating a consortium of scientists (spokesperson Stephen Hall) that had been successful in attracting a very large award from the WISE programme of the Wallenberg Foundation to deliver a new imaging beamline named TomoWISE. The formal sessions were followed by an interactive poster session in The Loop atrium that included stands for the Young Researchers Initiative, Visualising Science and Data with Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, ‘Pokémon Go’ technology for beamline experiments, a virtual guided tour of MAX IV Laboratory, and an ESS stand.
The Crafoord award announced by Sven Lidin is of particular importance to LINXS. It makes a key contribution to our mission as an advanced studies institute. The grant will be used to fund strategic initiatives that will enhance the research environment and data analysis capabilities. LINXS will further develop ‘data clinics’ to support data analysis; powerful workstations will be installed to create ‘twinned’ digital environments, with the ultimate aim of narrowing the delay between experiment and publication. The funding also supports the involvement of experts who can collaborate on data analysis, whether they are from local, national, or international facilities or departments. The grant also supports key aspects of the move into The Loop, including a total upgrade of the audiovisual systems throughout the premises and the inaugural conference.
Another important development during the year has been a major increase in core funding from the Faculties of Science, Engineering, and Medicine at Lund University, as well as from the University centrally. This follows the recommendations of an extremely positive external review of LINXS in 2024. The budget increase is central to the growth of LINXS as a whole, but is of particular importance to the Themes, where the coordination effort of LINXS staff was under pressure. The increased funding includes additional coordination resources for Lund University staff involved in Themes to take a greater role in this function. Overall, it means that LINXS can now work continuously with about 9 to 10 Themes at any one time.
Three new Themes started during the year: Quantum Materials (led by Oxford University), Advanced Imaging and Data Analysis (led by Lund University), and Advanced Rheometry for Neutron and X-ray Science (led by Chalmers University). These have already created considerable impact for their respective scientific communities through summer schools, hands-on workshops, and collaborative events related to large MAX IV beamtime applications. The existing Themes, Environment and Climate, Chemistry of Life, and Heritage Science, have also developed further in a highly satisfying way, with key examples being the First Nordic Sub-Micron IR Microscopy Conference, organised jointly by the Environment and Climate Theme and the AIDA Theme, a joint publication between the Chemistry of Life Theme and ESS, and an interactive, well-attended Heritage Science workshop in Slovenia.
During the year, our Scientific Advisory Board approved four new Themes for a 2026 start: X-ray and Neutron-based Characterization of Advanced Semiconductors (Semiconductors), led by Rainer Timm (Physics, Lund University); Soft Matter in Life: Biological Self-Assembly Across Time and Length Scales (SMILE), led by Hanna Wacklin-Knecht (ESS); Pandemics and Alertness (PandA), led by Wolfgang Knecht (Biology, Lund University); and Scattering and Imaging for Health Insights and New Evidence (SHINE), led by Karin Lindkvist (Medical Faculty, Lund University).
The Young Researchers’ Initiatives (YRIs) have grown steadily over the year. In 2025, in addition to organising three symposia in connection with LINXS’ focus areas of Hard Matter, Soft Matter, and Life Sciences, the YRIs network also hosted a joint LINXS YRI Science Day, as well as a thematic workshop on X-ray computed tomography. The breadth and range of these different events point to both the need to gather early-career researchers and the continued high interest in these types of activities. It is very healthy that the YRIs have increased participation from external organisations as well as international organisations such as the IUCr.
Our guest researcher programme welcomed six researchers in 2025. Their stays at LINXS have all generated collaborations and different types of impact, not least the ongoing collaboration between Professor Petri Kursula from the University of Bergen and guest researcher Roland Kádár, Professor at Chalmers University of Technology and leader of the RheoMAXESS Theme.
The AMBER MSCA COFUND project on advanced medical and biological imaging, coordinated by LINXS, has also expanded. During the year, LINXS coordinated three calls for postdoctoral fellows. By the end of 2025, the number of AMBER postdoctoral researchers totalled 28, forming a closely interacting cohort working across Europe at the different partner organisations (Lund, ESS, EMBL, ILL, IMOL, Leicester). The programme combines high scientific quality, interdisciplinarity, and opportunities to collaborate across methods, disciplines, and organisations. The EU mid-term review of AMBER will occur in early to mid-2026.
In summary, 2025 has been an exceptionally productive and positive year. Much of the success derives from the efforts of the LINXS staff and administration, the management, the external Scientific Advisory Board, the stakeholder Board (led by Stacey Sörensen), as well as the wider LINXS community within and beyond Sweden.
It has been a very special year.
/Trevor Forsyth