AUTOSPEC WP7 KICK-OFF MEETING

Wednesday Sep 23, 2026, 9:00 AM → 5:15 PM Europe/Madrid

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Briefing Room (ALBA Synchrotron)

Anastasia Molokova (ALBA)

The main goal of this meeting is to develop the overall design parameters and specifications of this new industrial service in close coordination with industry stakeholders, service providers, ILOs and facilities.

WP7 Objectives: to pilot an X-ray spectroscopy service for industrial users focusing on creating a sustainable quality assured technology platform (T7.1) including interoperable sample systems (T7.2), and common data workflows (T7.3) that may be uniformly adopted across European light sources.

The goal is a high-fidelity high-throughput X-ray spectroscopy service of highest quality, accessible across different facilities and effective in responding to industry needs for advanced materials research.

The main objective of this meeting is to start defining the specifications of the service allowing a synergistic approach.

The main sessions and discussions of the meeting will be held on 23 September 2026.
A social dinner is scheduled for the evening of 22 September 2026.

AUTOSPEC-WP7-Agenda.pdf

ALBA Welcome to AUTOSPEC WP7 consortium (Caterina Biscari)

AUTOSPEC objectives and scope

Speakers: Anna Kroner, Ennio Capria, Alejandro Sánchez Grueso

Session 1: Facility Stakeholders’ presentations

Format: ~7 minutes per facility
Key Topics:
1. Current State of the Art: Status and operational baseline across facility infrastructures
2. AUTOSPEC Objectives & Ambitions:
• Sample preparation
• Sample loading
• Automation of data collection
• Integration with data processing

1 1. ELETTRA: Giovanni Agostini (online)

2 2. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin: Klaus Kiefer (online)

3 3. MAX IV: Magnus Larsson

4 4. SESAME: Messaoud Harfouche

5 5. DESY: Jefferson do Rosário

6 6. SOLARIS: TBC

7 7. XFEL: TBC

10:40 AM Coffee break

(funded by LEAPS-TECH through ALBA-CELLS)

Session 2: Facility Stakeholders’ presentations

Format: ~12 minutes per facility
Key Topics:
1. Advanced Workflows: Focus on sample preparation & handling, sample holders, exchange systems, and smart workflows
2. AUTOSPEC Alignment: Technical objectives and ambitions within the project framework

8 1. ALBA: Laura Simonelli

9 2. ESRF: Kirill Lomachenko

10 3. Diamond: Diego Gianolio

Session 3: Industrial Stakeholders’ presentations

Key Topics:
1. Current activities and operational requirements
2. Alignment strategies to ensure effective service delivery for real-world researchers and applications

11 1. Finden: Stephen Price

12 2. LynXes: Zoltán Németh

13 3. Momentum transfer: TBC

14 4. Henkel: Kang Wei Chou

15 5. Johnson Matthey: Husn Islam

GROUP PHOTO

1:20 PM Lunch break

LUNCH TIME (funded by LEAPS-TECH through ALBA-CELLS)

Session 4: Presentation Wrap-up

Session 5: Round table discussion

Moderators: Anna Kroner and Ennio Capria
Agenda and discussion themes:
1. State of the Art: Assessment of currently available tools, solutions, and infrastructure
2. Preliminary Specifications: Defining initial technical and operational requirements
3. Initial Action Plan: Setting priorities aligned with Work Package (WP) goals and available resources
4. Risk Mitigation & Sustainability: Strategies to ensure tool maintainability, reproducibility, consistency, and cross-facility sustainability

Optional: visit of ALBA facility, specially X-ray spectroscopy BLs