Career Accelerator for Research Infrastructure Scientists
European XFEL is an international non-profit company located in the Hamburg area in Germany. It operates a 3.4 km-long X-ray laser, which produces X-rays of unique quality for studies in physics, chemistry, the life sciences, materials research and other disciplines. The diverse scientific facilities at European XFEL enable scientists from across the globe to carry out a wide range of experimental techniques.
Embedded in the European XFEL, located directly above the beamlines is the XFEL Biology Infrastructure (XBI). The science of the European XFEL depends as much on samples as on the XFEL Facility itself. The stability of biological samples is limited. Key biological transformations happen on time scales shorter than some minutes, and optimal use of the XFEL beam requires a support laboratory in the immediate vicinity of the experimental stations. The aim of the XBI is to providing an integrated user facility for the biological exploitation of the European XFEL. The laboratories facilitate all steps of biology sample preparation and quality control on site; including protein expression in cell culture, purification, mass spectrometry, AFM, electron- and fluorescence microscopy for sample characterization and crystal storage. This goes well beyond the baseline instrumentation for bringing samplesinto the X-ray beam and widens the possibilities for biology at the European XFEL considerably.
As a partner in this project, the European XFEL intends to cooperate with the EMBL towards training of the Fellows. The European XFEL can host up to two Fellows per year in the period 2020-2024 through secondments and introduce them to the ways of working, instrumentation and procedures at the European XFEL. Duration of secondments will be between 3 and 6 months, or on an ongoing collaborative basis over the duration of their complete project. The details will be arranged in communication with the Fellow. Fellows who will do secondments at European XFEL will come from the field related or complementary to the field of work of European XFEL. At the European XFEL Fellows will have a possibility to learn about nano crystallization and a wide range of structural sample characterization as well as sample injection techniques at the beamlines. Fellows will get experience in the organization and day to day business of user laboratories, as well as the beamlines. The European XFEL will dedicate supervision capacity for each fellow on secondments. During secondments, Fellows can stay employed by EMBL.
The European XFEL intends also to host mini-secondments in a duration of up to two weeks, during which Fellows will shadow operations at the European XFEL.