The ESS will deepen our understanding of both the natural world and the world of artificial materials and enhance our ability to use this knowledge effectively for the benefit of European industry and society.

Neutrons at ESS will:

• Enable research on materials for advanced information technologies and study for instance nanostructured magnetic clusters, dots and layers and examine the devices of the future based on magnetoelectronics and spintronics.
  
  
• Monitor catalytic processes. ESS will provide the atomic picture, underlying the electrochemistry of batteries and fuel cells and will lay important foundations for a hydrogen based energy economy.
  
  
• Give us an insight view of engineering structures. In this way ESS will enable better, safer, more economical and environmentally friendly designs of traffic and transport structures through the uptake of new materials, an improved understanding and refinement of manufacturing processes like friction welding for aircraft turbines and a surer foundation for structural integrity assessments like the examination of weldings in aircrafts of the future.
  
  
• Impact structure based drug discovery, structural aspects of aging, food processing and the production of biosensors and biochips.
  
  
• Provide an insight into the state of matter under extreme conditions of the earth´s interior facilitating the knowledge base for future predictions of volcanic eruptions and earth quakes.