If there is one field of research in which Europe can justifiably claim to lead the world, then it is neutron scattering. Europe boasts the world’s two most powerful sources of neutrons: the Institut Laue-Langevin reactor in France and the ISIS spallation facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. But that pre-eminence is being threatened by new facilities such as the Spallation Neutron Source in the US and the J-PARC facility in Japan, which is set to open next year. To maintain its lead, Europe must press ahead with building the European Spallation Source (ESS).

The facility was first proposed over 15 years ago, but progress has been dogged by a lack of political will. Thankfully, momentum now seems to be building (see “Neutron lab comes back from the dead”). The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, which includes representatives of the member states of the European Union (EU), has deemed the ESS to be a “mature” project, while the EU’s Seventh Framework programme is considering providing the necessary preparatory funding.

Concrete plans to host the ESS have already been put forward by Spain, Sweden and Hungary with support from their national governments. A UK consortium is also seeking to host the facility, backed by three universities in Yorkshire and the local development agency. The UK has a strong case for hosting the ESS because it has the largest neutron-scattering community in Europe – 1200 out of 4500 at the last count. Indeed, a recent report commissioned by the UK government has rightly endorsed the scientific case for more neutrons. The problem for the Yorkshire bid is that it does not have the backing of the UK government, which only wants to build major new facilities at its recently created “campus dipoles” at the Rutherford lab and the Daresbury lab in Cheshire. This is unfortunate, since the Yorkshire bid has much to commend it, having already secured outline planning permission on a site near Selby and promising to rejuvenate the local economy.

What the government should do is initiate a formal process for discussing and evaluating rival UK bids. If it refuses to do this, the government should waste no time in throwing its weight behind the Rutherford lab. Putting forward such a national bid would be the perfect opportunity for Gordon Brown, who will succeed Tony Blair as prime minister, to show that he is fully committed to UK science.