The past year has focused on upgrades and improvements of our instrument suite. We will report on the recent achievements, which are just lacking a test with neutrons. One major upgrade is the transfer of two instruments from the former neutron source at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin to Garching. Most of the instrument components arrived on November 8^th at the MLZ. Our university partners have acquired considerable funding for further development of instrumentation at MLZ within the ErUM-Pro scheme of the federal German research ministry (BMBF). We report in detail about the successful applications in this newsletter.

The bad news to report is the timeline for the restart of our neutron source. The difficult fabrication of the replacement part in the heart of the reactor, the so-called central channel, defines the earliest possible restart of our user operation in early 2024. We aim to discuss details and future projects during the annual MLZ User Meeting in December. On this occasion, we will also present the first ideas on our envisaged upgrade program MORIS. More intense discussions with you on this topic are planned in a user workshop on-site at the MLZ on April 26^th/27^th, 2023.

We hope to see you soon in Munich; either at our User Meeting or at the ECNS 2023 which is organized by the MLZ this time.

Prof. Dr. Martin Müller (GEMS, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, MLZ Director / Spokesperson)
Prof. Dr. Peter Müller-Buschbaum (FRM II, TU München, MLZ Director)

In total, 14 projects concerning instrument and method development at the MLZ/ FRM II have been awarded funding with a total volume of grants of 7.9 Mio€. Learn more about the projects that started on October 1^st, 2022!

On a sunny November morning, six containers on heavy-duty trucks arrived at the MLZ in Garching. Our gallery shows why.

After the pandemic years, the 24^th issue of the Laboratory Course Neutron Scattering of the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) could again take place at the MLZ in person.

The Czech-Bavarian Mini-school invited 10 Bavarian and 10 Czech advanced master/ early PhD students for the second time to learn more about large-scale facilities and open data.

A workshop on Jana2020, a professional software helping to analyze diffraction data, had been organized by the MLZ Science Group Structure Research.

The European Network on Neutron Techniques Standardisation for Structural Integrity celebrated its 20^th anniversary – at Garching!

This time, we welcome new staff members at RESEDA, HEiDi, and NECTAR!

We warmly welcome the first GNeuS fellows and asked them to introduce themselves.

The MLZ is delighted to invite the community to the 8^th European Conference on Neutron Scattering at Garching on March 20^th-23^rd, 2023. It will be the first ECNS in Germany!

Tommy Nylander, chair of the MLZ User Committee, looks back at the big conferences this year, analyzes the current situation at MLZ, and pays a tribute to Michael Steiner.

The weekly joint MLZ and TUM Physics Department lecture series “Neutrons for Science and Industry” continues in a hybrid format. Talks are announced in the events section of our web page.

Since Sept 01^st, the MLZ is participating in the EU project ReMade@ARI. The aim of the project which is funded with 13.8 million Euros, is to develop new materials that are competitive and highly recyclable.

On Sept 8^th, the Expert Committee 101 Non-Destructive Testing of the VDI Society Materials Engineering met for another platform meeting for application-oriented networking.

The existence of carbonic acid has long been the subject of debate: theoretically real, but practically impossible to detect. But now, the crystalline structure of carbonic acid molecules had been made visible for the first time.

And finally: Don’t miss MLZ Instrument scientists Johanna K. Jochum and Sebastian Mühlbauer at the TUM Science Slam talking about 887 seconds at FRM II!