Following a lengthy, in-depth and detailed process involving the majority of countries in Europe and the future user community, a decision was taken on the evening of May 28th 2009 by a group of European research ministers to locate the ESS in Lund, in southern Scandinavia. Other site contenders were Bilbao in northern Spain and Debrecen in eastern Hungary. ESS is a joint European multinational project rather than an EU project.

Decisions are made when those countries that have declared a commitment in jointly building, owning and operating ESS have established a coalition and entered into a formal agreement with the hosting countries. Sweden and Denmark will be the co-hosts of the ESS, with the facility itself being located in the university city of Lund and a data management centre in Copenhagen.

Now that the issue of the site has been resolved the ESS project will move into a 2 to 3 year Design Update phase. Decisions about the operational specification of ESS, what will finally be built, and how the facility will be financed will be part of the role of an ESS steering committee comprising delegates from all committed countries.

The Swedish government’s declaration of intent in February 2007 was the starting signal for ESS Scandinavia’s strategic negotiations with European governments and research institutes which has now reached the significant milestone of a siting decision in favour of Lund.

These negotiations have been led by Allan Larsson, the Swedish government’s Chief Negotiator and former Minister of Finance. Phase 1 and 2 of the negotiations have already been completed and phase 3 has been initiated.