Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice under the auspices of Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic, Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, and the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH in Hamburg organized and held the School of XFEL, Synchrotron and Neutron Radiation Users SFEL2024 on October 14-18, 2024, in Liptovský Ján, Slovakia.

The aim of the series of SFEL schools is to facilitate the growth of the new Slovak research community of users of large-scale facilities such as X-ray laser, synchrotron, and neutron sources. The SFEL2024 School is designed for efficient transfer of the rapidly developing know-how in these areas to the younger generation – researchers and university students, as well as strengthening the personal connections between the local Slovak research community and scientific experts from around the world. Almost 100 participants represented more than 10 countries, mainly from Slovakia and neighboring states. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was represented at the meeting by Norbert Kučerka, Deputy Director of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics.

He presented an overview of more than half a century of legacy of FLNP in applying neutron methods at pulsed reactors, including for investigations in materials science and life sciences. FLNP researchers and users of the IBR-2 reactor have extensive experience in using neutron scattering and complementary techniques for aiding a design of novel materials and improving existing materials for the development of modern technologies. Over the past decades, FLNP scientists have been successfully using diffraction approaches to characterize physical properties of a wide range of materials, thereby forming the basis for further advances in research and achievement of new scientific results. The report provided examples of investigations in which special properties of materials were effectively studied using neutrons. In these studies, the unique nature of neutrons allowed looking inside non-transparent composites or revealing invisible magnetic structures. An important part of the report was the presentation to the participants of the plan for resuming the operation of the IBR-2 reactor and its user program, which attracted the attention of many potential users who showed a keen interest in the report, including in connection with the upcoming possibility of applying for neutron beam time.