We offer a wide range of different access modes to our facilities, depending on your experience and needs.

We invite you to contact the Industry Liaison Office, where technological need will be assessed by our experts, free of charge. After the initial assessment you will receive a set of recommendations, regarding suitable research techniques, approximate length of the measurements and the access mode best suited to your needs.

Basic access

Basic access mode encompasses an access to the research infrastructure of the SOLARIS Centre (URANOS, PIRX, ASTRA, PHELIX, DEMETER beamlines and cryoEM microscope), with the assistance of a dedicated operator. You will receive basic support regarding sample preparation, data acquisition and preliminary data analysis. After the measurements, you will receive a set of experimental results (spectra, diffractograms and microscopic images).

Basic access mode doesn’t require signing the contract with the SOLARIS Centre and is billed on an hourly basis.

Basic access mode is recommended for advanced industrial users, which already conduct R&D and want to extend their capabilities through applying new, advanced research methods.

Comprehensive access

Comprehensive access mode encompasses the whole process of solving the specific technological challenge facing your business. This option includes: the analysis of the issue facing your business, literature and desk research, planning all experiments required to solve the problem, the choice of research methods best suited for the task, purchase of any additional materials required for the analysis (such as reference samples), conducting the experiments, full data analysis and developing final recommendations. At every step of the process, a dedicated scientist from the SOLARIS Centre will provide you with the detailed updates regarding the progress of the work. After the process, you will receive the final report, describing all obtained information and a set of fully analyzed experimental results. Within the comprehensive access mode, there is also a possibility of gaining access to other laboratories at the Jagiellonian University, complimentary to the ones used at the SOLARIS Centre, and conducting a preliminary analysis of the patent landscape.

Industrial users are welcome to take part in every step of the R&D work. However, there is also a possibility to use the mail-in service and fully outsource the experiments to our staff.

Comprehensive access mode is based on a detailed quotation and signing a contract with the Centre.

Comprehensive access mode is recommended for the industrial users, who want to solve a specific technological challenge, but at a given time cannot commit enough internal resources to the task. It is also recommended for very complex problems, requiring the use of different methods and advanced data analysis.

Project collaboration

SOLARIS Centre can participate in externally funded R&D projects as a project partner, subcontractor, and sometimes also as a project coordinator. These include projects funded both on a national level (for example by the National Science Centre, the National Centre for Research and Development) and on an international level (for example in the Horizon 2020 and in the upcoming Horizon Europe programmes). The intensity of the available funding varies from around 60% up to 100% of the eligible project costs and is especially advantageous for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). If you’re interested in participating in externally-funded R&D projects, please contact the Industry Liaison Office for guidance regarding available funding schemes and the choice of the experimental methods best suited for the project scope.

Project collaboration is recommended for the innovative SMEs and startups, due to high funding intensity and large number of available funding options. This option will also be suitable for some larger enterprises.

Dedicated access

The SOLARIS Centre offers collaboration, with regard to the commissioning of the new beamlines utilizing synchrotron radiation, or other facilities. Collaboration is usually based on the co-financed purchase of new equipment. The industrial or research partner is then granted, free of charge, a fixed amount of dedicated access time to the machine.

Dedicated access is recommended for large enterprises, or R&D centres, which want to use the synchrotron radiation and the expertise of our scientists in their research, but find our current offer of the experimental techniques incomplete.

Pilot studies

Pilot studies are preliminary, basic experiments, conducted at the SOLARIS Centre on the samples, provided by the industrial users, which do not require additional preparation, or on the reference samples. These experiments are intended to demonstrate the potential of our infrastructure and to assess its usefulness for the future industrial research projects. The cost of pilot studies is low, due to their preliminary character and the results can be used by the SOLARIS Centre for the PR and promotional activities.

Remote access

On some of the beamlines we offer remote access to the research equipment. It can be a part of either basic or comprehensive access mode. After sending the samples to the SOLARIS Centre, our scientists will set up the equipment and remotely assist you in the measurements.