About the SPring-8 Users Community (SPRUC)

Purpose

The SPRUC is a user organization formed by SPring-8 users. In close cooperation with the Registered Institution for Facilities Use Promotion (JASRI) and the facility owner (RIKEN), the SPRUC aims to facilitate the sophistication and optimization of the facility use and the development of science and technology by building bridges between the SPring-8 and academia/industry. Interaction between members is expected to ensure the development and expansion of SR science and quantum beam science.

Organization

With a view to achieving the above goal, all users of SPring-8 shall automatically become members of the SPRUC upon completion of SPring-8 user registration. A Chair, a Board of Councilors, a Secretary, and several committees will conduct the business of the SPRUC. The Board of Councilors will have 30 councilors serving two-year terms (with half being elected every year). The councilors will be nominated by the representatives of 4 representing organizations (see below) from among the SPRUC members and elected by the SPRUC members through an electronic voting process. The Chair will be selected by the elected councilors and will appoint a Secretary. The Chair and the Secretary will serve two-year terms. The SPRUC will also have representing organizations, each of which has a representative, to obtain recommendations on the management policies of the SPRUC. The representing organizations will be nominated by the Board of Councilors every two years from among the universities, research institutes, and companies with which many SPring-8 users are affiliated and approved by the General Assembly. Users affiliated with the representing organizations shall select their representative through discussions from among expert colleagues who can put together the opinions of on-site researchers from users' perspective. The representatives of the representing organizations shall participate in the Conference of representing organizations, nominate candidates for councilors, provide recommendations on the activities of the SPRUC as experts.

Click here for enlarged organization chart.

Functions

• The SPRUC shall be an interdisciplinary organization in which all SPring-8 users can participate to discuss the better use of SPring-8 and put their opinions together.
• The SPRUC shall be an organization which will make a commitment to the operation and management of SPring-8 not only from users' point of view but also from a technological/social perspective.
• The SPRUC should not be a place for each member's individual society activity; rather, the SPRUC shall act as an interface between academic/industrial research societies (associations) and SPring-8 by conducting surveys to determine user trends in cooperation with the Registered Institution for Facilities Use Promotion.

Message from the Chair

The election of the SPRUC’s third Council took place on January 13, 2022. As newly elected Chair by mutual vote, I am honored by the confidence they have in me to represent our profession. I would like to inherit the foundation developed by all past chairs and will work on achieving further progress and advancement over the next two years. Vice Chairs, Secretaries and Committee Chairs are listed as follows.

	Vice Chairperson:SPring-8	Harada, Yoshihisa	The University of Tokyo
	Vice Chairperson:SACLA	Yoneda, Hitoki	The University of Electro-Communications
	Vice Chairperson:Industry	Taniyama, Akira	Nippon Steel Corp.
	General Affairs Secretary	Suzuki, Motohiro	Kwansei Gakuin University
	PR Secretary	Takenaka, Mikihito	Kyoto University
	Facility Use Secretary:SPring-8	Kobayashi, Masaki	The University of Tokyo
	Facility Use Secretary:SACLA	Matsuda, Iwao	The University of Tokyo
	Event Secretary:SPring-8 Symposium	Sugimoto, Kunihisa	Kindai University
	Event Secretary:SPring-8 Symposium	Matsushita, Tomohiro	NAIST
	Event Secretary:Autumn School	Matsumura, Daiju	JAEA
	Editorial Secretary	Nango, Eriko	Tohoku University
	Accounting Secretary	Kubota, Yoshiyuki	Osaka Metropolitan University
	Planning Secretary	Nagamura, Naoka	NIMS
	Faculty Use Committee Chair	Harada, Yoshihisa	The University of Tokyo
	Project Committee Chair	Yashiro, Watarue	Tohoku University
	Event Committee Chair	Tanaka, Yoshihito	University of Hyogo

As a means of effectively organizing all the events that SPRUC hosts, we established a new committee. The event committee is intended to streamline events such as SPring-8 Symposiums, SPring-8 Autumn School, Upgrade Workshops, etc., which are increasing yearly.
In the COVID-19 pandemic situation, I feel that the rapid changes in the use of SPring-8 are being driven by the automation and remoteization of SPring-8/SCLA, beamline upgrades for SPring-8 II, Green Facility Announcement aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and carbon neutrality, SPring-8 Data Center Plan, a new type of proposals of SPring-8, etc.
　Under these circumstances, we would like to put effort into reflecting opinions and comments from all SPring-8/SACLA users with different research fields, research needs and frequency of use.
　The event committee will intensify the role of SPring-8 Symposiums and BLs Upgrade Workshops, being major events of SPRUC. Apart from SPring-8/SACLA, large-scale research facilities related to SPRUC members are not only under construction but also vigorous in use, which are the next-generation synchrotron radiation facility that is expected to be completed by 2023 in Tohoku, neutron facility J-PARC, etc.
　At SPRUC, Synchrotron Radiation-Neutron Collaborative Use Research Group established from the 5th term is actively engaged in research. We would also like to discuss extensive collaboration with user groups to effectively promote research activities of more than 10,000 SPRUC members.

Chair of SPRUC
Professor
Department of Physics, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences,
University of Tsukuba
Eiji Nishibori