Physicists at the University of Liverpool are being awarded £6.9million from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) as part of a £60million investment to continue their support for the particle physics research community in the UK.
The funding helps to keep Liverpool and the UK at the forefront of answering some of the biggest and most complex questions in science and supports the next generation of UK particle physicists.
With Oxford and Imperial College, the University of Liverpool is among the largest of the 18 University projects awarded funding by the STFC to carry out world-leading particle physics research over the next three years.
Liverpool physicists will focus on finding answers to some of the most pressing questions in particle physics, such as understanding the nature of dark matter or why we live in a universe that appears to almost entirely devoid of anti-matter particles.
They will do this through continuing the work on several current experiments and experiments still under development. These include experiments at the Large Hardon Collider at CERN and neutrino experiments, muon precision experiments and dark matter searches at laboratories in the US, Europe and Japan.
Recent hints from different experiments have offered tantalising hints that further breakthroughs in particle physics could come from current experiments or experiments already in preparation.
The Principal Investigator at the University of Liverpool for this award is Professor Joost Vossebeld who said: "This funding is fantastic news for Liverpool physicists and testimony to both the world leading research work we undertake and the leadin role Liverpool plays in developing the next-generation of particle physics experiments. The success is owned by every member of the Liverpool group, whether they are academics, students, engineers, technicians or computing specialist. We are all very excited to see what the next three years will bring.
Professor Grahame Blair, STFC Executive Director for Programmes, said: "STFC continues to support the experimental particle physics community in the UK in answering fundamental questions about our Universe.
"The grants are vital in supporting technicians, engineers and academics in their skills and expertise in the field, all while encouraging career development in fundamental research with both universities and international collaborators.
"This investment underpins the UK physics community and enables continued UK leadership in the field of experimental particle physics."
STFC funds UK particle physicists working on a wide range of experiments globally. Research teams funded by the UK are working on solving ground-breaking challenges in particle physics, including the race to detect dark matter, the investigation of neutrino oscillations and the search for proton decay - all key questions in fundamental physics which we still do not have answers to.
